Compromise
by Arcadia123
Summary: At the mercy of the saiyans, the planets of the solar system have no choice but to kneel. But the solar system is keeping a super secret from the saiyans, and the saiyans want to know what it is. In a desperate attempt to uncover the truth, they kidnap the princess of Venus. But can Minako and Trunks resist each other for long? Or will they find a love which puts it all at risk...
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

Golden, cylindrical pillars stood proud, tall, and beautiful in Magellan - the castle of Aphrodite. Golden-yellow light decorated the pale yellow walls and floors and as usual the stain-glassed windows of many colours reflected vibrant rays.

To the left of the throne room were situated five of these enormous windows. The first on the left was of the current time guardian and her home world of Pluto, the main colour being a dark purple and black. The second was the current guardian of the oceans with many luxurious patterns and greens and blues. The third was of the Uranusian princess of the skies, the fourth was of the senshi of death, destruction and rebirth and her home world in the background. And the fifth was of the Earth and its current guardian, Prince Endymion.

After stepping out of her portal window the first thing that came into view for this Mercurian Princess were these windows. Each window a portal to the palaces of each respective world they displayed.

Stepping forward a good few paces, Mercury turned around to ponder at the windows on the right side like she had done many times before. Firstly viewing the one of her and her own world with its many blues. Hers was the fourth on the right side if you were walking down towards the throne. The final one on the right side was of Venus and its beautiful guardian and princess.

The portal gate of this particular window lead to a Venusian safe place and could only be used by those of Venusian royal blood or those permitted by a royal. However, even though she was a friend of the princess not even she knew where this lead to. This was in case of war.

Not bothering to admire the rest of the gate windows, Princess Mercury walked down to the throne of Queen Venus situated in the middle of the plaza at the bottom of the room. On an ordinary occasion she would of course have admired the other windows, but this time was urgent.

"Your Majesty." spoke the bluenette, bowing her head and curtseying for the queen. Without even looking she could feel the intense beauty of the queen's maroon eyes on her.

"I have told you that there is no need for such formality, my dear Ami." Spoke the queen, her voice a blessing to Mercury's ears. Mercury was relieved because her message would be a lot easier to deliver if she could ignore formalities.

The Princess of Venus lightly ran into the room as Mercury raised her head. Adorning a short and simple yellow dress, the princess still looked gorgeous despite not adorning her royal attire.

"Ami!" Minako squealed, running towards her friend and embracing her.

"Lovely to see you, Mina." The queen and princesses then all resumed their stances, the Venusians knowing of the news the Mercurian messenger had to tell.

"Those damn saiyans!" The queen gritted, her voice still musical despite its anger. "They don't stop!" so darn true.

Mercury took a deep breath and pondered how the queen would take the news. Let alone the princess. Producing the courage to do so, the messenger parted her gentle lips.

"They want to come here for a banquet, Your Majesty, to Magellan." the expression on Addienna's face said it all. The saiyans were inviting themselves to her palace _and_ requesting a banquet?! Absurd! The very bastards who had almost wiped out the entire Solarian empire a while ago and killed her beloved in cold blood. But she had no choice. Despite having the power of the planetary crystals, the silver crystal, and the golden crystal, the Solarians weren't made for fighting wars of brute strength and power like the saiyans. The only thing that had stopped the saiyans winning the war was currently unusable. If the bastards found this out they were done for.

The panic in their faces still did not change the fact that the Venusians were beautiful.

"Why on Venus would they want to come here…" the queen trailed off. Memories of her husband came to mind. Holes in his chest…limbs missing…organs… The thought was sickening. What was worse was that she didn't have the ability to avenge him.

"I apologise for the news, Addienna, but King Vegeta says he wants to compromise for peace." But what would he want? "And in our favour he'll stop sending his warriors to take as they please from us."

Despite the fighting being over, it was not unusual for saiyans to come and take 'souvenirs' from Solaria back to Vegeta. Such as certain precious gems not found on their own world.

Letting out a deep sigh, Queen Addienna considered her options. What if the compromise resulted in something disagreeable? Could she bring herself to say no to King Vegeta and Queen Chinizu? After all…they could blow Aphrodite's holy land to mere space dust if they so desired.

A meeting of all the royals in Solaria would have to be held to discuss this. But why Venus of all places? What about the Solaria Palace? Did this compromise have something to do with the holy land itself? Or even worse, the people in it…

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 **A/N: Greetings! I hope you found this interesting, I've been planning this story for a while and hope it goes down well. Please leave your thoughts and any ideas for improvement - I'm open to criticism.**


	2. Chapter 01

**Chapter 1**

 **A/N: Hey guys! There will be another A/N at the end of the chapter explaining some things that will most likely confuse you in this chapter. It is set in an AU so I have changed some things which happened in the original series. It's nothing significant in the series but will be important in this fic. Please stay tuned for a (hopefully) engrossing story and another A/N at the bottom (I don't want to bore you before you even start reading ; ).**

The second son of Prince Vegeta roamed through the castle which he called home. In comparison to his mother's home, this place was dull, dark, and depressing - lacking any colour in the hallways and staircases. If his mother was here she would have a full on bitch fit at his father for letting her son live in such dismal conditions. But he didn't mind at all. He was half saiyan as well as half human so having a bit of colour in his life wouldn't make much difference to his overall mood.

That wasn't to say that he didn't appreciate his mother's attitude towards him however. Despite being more dominantly saiyan, the bond he shared with his mother differed completely to how most saiyan mothers and children got along. Vegeta hardened Trunks with extensive training and teachings of saiyan attitudes; however his mother brought out a soft side in both him and his father. Of course Prince Vegeta only ever showed this side to Bulma and Bulla - not to him.

From a young age the prince trained hard everyday to try and live up to his father's reputation and to make his older half brother keep his distance. Gumele, even from a saiyan's perspective, was a heartless piece of shit. The child that his father didn't want to conceive.

The dismality of the palace had little to no impact on the mood of the hybrid as mentioned before but Trunks still wanted something more. There was only a certain amount of time he found that he could spend on this world before he wanted something to do. Saiyans didn't stay home very often as the majority of them were sent out to conquer other worlds leaving the planet dull with little to do or nothing interesting to see. This was why Trunks wished he could go to Earth more often in order to see his mother.

Being half human on Planet Vegeta, especially being the son of arguably the most powerful man on the planet and the crowned prince, was not something that made life particularly easy. Even if Trunks _was_ Vegeta's oldest child the throne still wouldn't go to him, or rather there would be a lot of controversy about a half breed who resembled a human more than a saiyan ruling over them. Gumele had one up on him in that perspective although admittedly Trunks didn't care seeing as his father was next in line anyway.

Despite Vegeta, Gumele, and himself there was one other super saiyan - Kakarot, a lower class saiyan who had been deployed to Earth but learned human emotions and transformed into a super saiyan before even his father did. It was unknown who was stronger between Kakarot and Vegeta although they were said to be near equals. Kakarot was criticised by other saiyans for becoming 'less saiyan' and losing his destructive ways after settling down on Earth - a planet under threat of the saiyan army.

In a way it was thanks to Kakarot that he was born due to his new transformation attracting the attention of his father. Kakarot was friends with Bulma and upon seeing her, Vegeta knew by instinct that she was the one after already conceiving a saiyan child with a woman on Planet Vegeta.

Either way he still would never be king of this world; but in all honesty - he didn't really care. As a powerful warrior he could conquer any world he wanted to and settle down there although he wasn't a ruthless killing machine. Ruling a whole race was not something that the young half breed prince wanted to do.

Trunks turned the corner and walked to a section which was red carpeted and opened the door directly to his grandfather's throne room. He did not pay the guards any attention knowing full well that he was not respected to the same extent as his older brother. Why should he acknowledge them as his guard when they wouldn't acknowledge him as their prince? Down the bottom of the throne room sat King Vegeta on his throne with Prince Vegeta standing to his side and, his bastard older brother, Gumele on his other side.

"Grandfather, Father." Trunks said as he reached his 'family'. "Gumele." he said in a less enthusiastic and more spiteful tone, respectively nodding his head to all three.

"Welcome, grandson." Spoke the king. He rose off of his throne and walked towards Trunks and placed a strong, massive hand on his grandson's shoulder. At that very moment Gumele gave Trunks a look of utter disgust, sneering at him before bumping his shoulder as he stomped his way out of the massive throne room - distinguishably the best looking and most appealing room throughout the entire castle.

Seeing as his older brother had stormed out, Trunks deduced that he was either going to be praised or offered something in which Gumele couldn't stand hearing his brother doing well. Gumele was a typical, bloodthirsty saiyan warrior which contrasted with Trunks' human side. This human side of Trunks had allowed him to turn into a super saiyan with little effort in comparison to Gumele whose transformation was triggered by something very different.

Despite not being a super saiyan, King Vegeta was duly respected by all of the saiyans and even Trunks and Vegeta. He was a great leader and tactician responsible for making the saiyan empire even more powerful than it already was. Out of respect even having the saiyans' new home world named after himself.

"We've got a suggestion for you, boy." spoke the king to his grandson. Trunks listened, curious as to what this suggestion would be. Another training mission? Another planet capturing? "We've decided to visit the Solarian Empire. And I say we because it is not you and your father going to see your mother."

Trunks was oddly surprised. Why would he need to go there if he wasn't seeing his mother? The whole empire was already under saiyan ownership meaning that saiyans could harvest as much of its energy as needed. The Solarian Empire had an unknown source of energy that seemed to be never ending and capable of doing supernatural things so obviously it attracted the saiyans. But nevertheless.

"Why would that be, grandfather?" the young hybrid questioned. His own father smirked in response which Prince Trunks noticed from the corner of his eye.

"Your mother creates a lot of technology for us saiyans." his grandfather began. Which was true however Bulma held back on the amount she granted the saiyans. She was paid well by the saiyans but she knew that if she gave them her very best then they would use it maliciously. Trunks and Vegeta, and Kakarot too, knew this, however the king did not. "But even her technology requires a lot of energy." Again, this was incorrect. Bulma sold the saiyans tech that required a lot of unnecessary energy so that they wouldn't buy and ask for so much of it. This was very intelligent as Bulma sold products for more than their worth and didn't even sell them the energy efficient ones. Saiyan technology was still pitiful compared to the likes of Earth; of course King Vegeta did not know of that. "However we need more energy. An unlimited supply."

Trunks was able to guess what his grandfather was going on about. The Solarian planets used very little, if any, fossil or solar fuels to live off of if you didn't include Earth which housed lots of energy efficient technology. They used some kind of unknown energy. An example is the floating palaces of Solarian royalty which floated off of the ground without the use of any tech. Despite being owned by the saiyans, the worlds of Solaria were prosperous and beautiful and lived in harmony with one another. Of course his grandfather wanted this for himself. Solarians handed over fuel and energy and yet still somehow managed to live without poverty.

"So you want to start another war?"

"No. We've been able to figure out that the Solarians would rather lay down their lives than surrender this. We also know that royals can use this fuel source better than anybody else." What could this be leading to?

"I don't quite follow you, grandfather." Trunks said with the utmost respect. However this was good. If Trunks could avoid war with Solaria then he could avoid upsetting his mother more. His mother hated that her son was a war lord and it would break her to have her own son become like the saiyans many years before and tear the land to pieces.

Vegeta could be seen smirking in the background. The mighty saiyan prince walked towards his son as King Vegeta backed off. "We're taking Addienna's daughter. We think that there might be a connection between royalty and the energy source from Solaria. So we'll take the little princess as our hostage and see if either the queen gives up the secret in exchange for her daughter, or the daughter tells us in fear of her life." In theory, this was an excellent plan. The saiyans could threaten the empire with so many things so getting them to compromise should be fairly easy. Not to mention that they could also take her by force. The odd thing about the princesses was that their names were not mentioned to the saiyans. Not that it was important.

"So when do we leave. And how many do we bring?"

"Now, grandson, this is when we are going to go on a little trip of our own. One of my last actions as king while your father will be left in charge for 2 days. We'll bring a ship of roughly 50 warriors. It should be enough." his grandfather was a genius. If the ship did not land on the planet then Venusian attacks would not reach them. And if they came in peace then there would be no reason to. Amazing. "We leave tomorrow."

Brilliant. "And don't forget to dress like a prince, you might even attract the princess herself." Vegeta's idea of humour was questionable. But Trunks knew his father very well and got a gut feeling that his father was scheming something, or had an ulterior motive.

#########

Queen Addienna was the last to arrive in the room of formal discussions. Despite her ever present and eternal beauty above all, Addienna looked severely stressed. As stressed and panicked and nervous the queen felt, she could never possibly look ugly.

She adorned her formal royal dress, yellow and light orange in colour with varying shades at different places. The tight bodice complimented her womanly figure as the colours lit up her already beautiful face. Addienna slayed everything. "I apologise for my rudeness, my sisters." she spoke to the other present rulers. Though not actually sisters by blood, they were all sisters by heart as they were the former guardian sailor senshi of their respective home worlds and Solaria. But of course the sailor crystals had to be passed on to their daughters. This wasn't to say that the queens had no power.

"No problem, Addi. We all understand your massive stress right now. And we're here to help you." These wonderful words of reassurance were uttered from the wise but truthful lips of Queen Ember of Mars and the mother of Princess Rei. Ember had long black locks that were tied up and separated in two and were tied to form two loops at the back of her head with black bangs framing her pale face. She adorned a dark purple dress with red parts. Ember, like her fire, had a fiery and irritable personality which was a trait that Rei had also inherited. She was a force to be reckoned with, but as loyal as anything when it came to her dear sisters and nieces.

"I don't mean to force the stress, Addi dear, but we really do need a plan of action and some back up ideas. We need strategies for if they're plotting an invasion of any sort and we _must_ keep our dear children safe." This hurried and straight to the point set of words were spoken by none other than the Queen of calm waters herself, Edlem. The Queen of Mercury, mother of Princess Ami, and embodiment of intelligence, Edlem was always straight to the point albeit she was very considerate of her sisters. The rulers of the worlds had been put through more than enough torture in the past by the ruthless brutality of the mighty and heartless saiyans. Each of them had had their lovers slain as a sign of dominance by the saiyans. If they lost anybody else then they, as rulers and as genuine people, would be shattered. And it was from this point of view which Edlem was coming from. They could not afford small talk and had to put their emotions aside in order to unite and figure out a plan.

"We are not fighters anymore, my sisters. We are rulers. Although the power of the sailor crystals is still active inside of us they are no longer in our possession. We may use our power to fend off the saiyans, but be aware that if it comes to war then our children will be of most leadership and fighting." Not only the former guardian of flowers and storms, Queen Kahlan was strong and a warrior, always sharp and alert as well as a very skilful and refined martial artist. She used the storms and nature very well in combat and was still an extremely capable combatant. She was teaching all of her skills to her daughter, Princess Makoto.

"We are well aware of that, Kal. But we will be forced to fight alongside our children if the situation calls for it." Spoke Edlem with her short, bright baby blue locks that did not even reach her shoulders. Her eyes were such a light shade of blue that they were almost white. Her icy formal dress came off the shoulders and clenched her sides tightly and exposed her feet.

"Why are they coming again? What do they want from us? And what could they possibly want that could bring about peace?! I just cannot comprehend it!" The beautiful queen spoke.

"We must think on our feet, majesties. They're obviously plotting something. Saiyans are not beings of peace." This was spoken by the Lunarian Queen, Serenity. Although sometimes air headed she was the most pleasant woman ever. This was also something in which Princess Serenity, or Usagi, had inherited.

"I've deduced that the saiyans are not here to harm us. Or not in a certain way." Spoke Edlem. "You see, if they desired to slaughter us all then they would of course do it without warning. And the fact that they want to negotiate only means that they want something from us. They want it so badly from us that they're willing to set their bloodthirsty wills aside and compromise with you, Addi. I believe that there is something that we're not giving them enough of, or something that they're not getting at all. And that is why I've come to the conclusion that they want our crystals." this suggestion was quite an extremity and if the queens were not so cautious and alert of the saiyans then it may have been said that Edlem may have been being a bit paranoid. But in actuality it made perfect sense. The saiyans had access to every kind of natural fuel source from the Solarian worlds as well as technology from Earth. Queen Dimitria of Earth, albeit not considered one of the 'sisters' due to past conflict with Earth, was well aware of Ms. Bulma's actions however Earth had become more reliant on the golden crystal rather than its natural fuel sources. In all honesty Dimitria was an ally and bonds were getting stronger with Earth and so she had agreed to help albeit did not attend the meeting.

"It is exactly what I feared. However we must take into consideration that they will never be able to find the crystals unless one of our daughters gives one up. I have faith that our children would never do such a thing." Spoke Ember. Her Rei would rather die than give up the power of Mars, and she knew that her dear nieces would do the same.

"Not to mention that the royals are the only ones capable of using the crystals properly. Even if they took the crystals then they would be no good to them." Spoke Kahlan. This was of course true however this was not something to be positive of.

"Yes. But let it cross your mind that if we lose our crystals then our planets will no longer be able to contain life. We will all be killed. It was the power of the crystals that allowed our worlds to sustain life. And if the crystals are somehow destroyed then we are all doomed." This was spoken by Serenity. The sad news was true. But of course even if a senshi was killed then the crystal would return to the queen who would wield it once again. But none of the queens wanted to imagine their precious children dying. To them, the sailor guardians were just as important as the legendary crystals themselves.

"I would rather die than see my daughter perish. If it comes to be then I will fight as long and as hard as I can to ensure my daughter's survival. I have lived long enough to see my people go through indescribable hardships and I myself have been through more than enough. The same could be said for all of you. So that is why, Addi, I will lend you 10 of my finest warriors and storm wielders to protect my dear niece, Minako, and yourself in your time of need." the words of Kal resonated in Addi's heart and inspired the others.

"You may have my 5 finest soldiers. However I have a limited amount of elite and desire to keep the rest in case the saiyans attack Mercury." and of course the other queens came to an agreement that Addienna was to lend a total of 30 elite soldiers.

"I truly appreciate your love, my sisters. I love you and am eternally grateful to you all." uttered Addienna, her nervous expression had calmed down slightly as she embraced the help of her dear sisters.

And as if on queue, the princesses themselves stepped through the large crystal door - the first was Princess Makoto.

"Majesties." she took a knee and bowed her head in respect for her predecessors. The other princesses, all in senshi form, stood behind her. "Please let us come to guard Mina! She's our sister and we couldn't forgive ourselves if something bad happened to her while we were unable to help." Sailor Jupiter spoke in her strong voice. Just like her mother. The sailor senshi had always been close to one another and had protected each other.

Minako, accompanying her sisters, sighed. She was aware of how things went. But she didn't want to imagine anyone of her sisters being harmed because of her. However, if the same thing were happening to any of the other senshi then she would be more than willing to put herself into that situation and wouldn't hesitate to fight.

"Stand, Mako. There's no need for such formalities! We understand directly where you're coming from." Spoke Ember. She remembered a time when those very thoughts were in her own mind. She glanced up at her daughter, and then back down to her niece who then stood up. "You girls have such pure hearts. You have almost everything it means to be a true senshi." Edlem caught on to where she was going.

"You girls are all caring." she started, smiling. "You're all strong. You're all pure. You're all driven by a purpose. But as smart as you girls are, you're very stupid in one regard. Edlem looked at her daughter who was looking down in shame. She was proud that her daughter was the quickest to catch on of the senshi.

"But you all need to realise that you girls have more than just the purpose of protecting one another." said Kahlan. She stepped forward to the senshi. "You're all going to have to protect your own kingdoms. One day, you will all be queens and will have the responsibility of protecting your people. So there are times when you need to take into consideration what else is hanging on the line."

"It is true. One day, we _will_ defeat the saiyans. We'll be free from their reign once our trump card can be used. But until then we have to fight with what we have. And what that is, is you." these words of silk and wisdom were spoken by the odango-headed queen of the moon. The senshi detransformed.

"Does that mean we can't fight?" asked Princess Makoto. Her mother just sighed.

"It means that we have enough protection for if anything bad were to happen. Please remember that it is likely that a fight won't even occur." the senshi realised that they had lost the battle and that trying to win their mothers over wouldn't happen.

"Ladies, please dismiss yourselves while we finish this meeting." ordered Kahlan. Their daughters obeyed, and opened the doors to the portals back to their respective worlds.

#####

 ***2 hours later***

Minako strolled arm in arm with her good friend and closest thing to a love interest, Kunzite. Kunzite was a commander in the Venusian army and was a very skilled and powerful fighter. He fought in the battle against Queen Beryl and aided in defeating Metalia. He was handsome and strong, something which attracted the Venusian princess.

"My princess, this planet means everything to me. I will fight to protect it." he had a voice like the finest of silks: very soothing and elegant but deep at the same time. He had many admirers to say the least, but then again, so did she. She admired his drive to protect the planet. He was a devoted soldier to say the least, although it was clear that he didn't think very highly of the people on it. It wasn't that he disliked them, he just saw them as his inferiors. In all honesty, he wasn't wrong; most Venusians could only hope to become as strong as the captain of the royal guard himself. She held a deep respect for Kunzite and admired his strength. Like her, he was the leader of a small, elite team of soldiers. His team were the male equivalent of the sailor senshi in a way and consisted of him, Jaedite, Zoisite, Nephlite, and Endymion. This was a reason as to why the two saw eye to eye on a lot of things; such as taking a leaderly roll in their respective teams and holding a distain with the saiyans.

Kunzite was a man of mystery. He very rarely opened up to her and when she was in his presence it was usually she who initiated conversations. But today was different. He seemed concerned. Was he worried about her? Of course he was. He was assigned to protect her and her mother. She was his princess after all. "How are you feeling, m'lady?" he asked with that smooth voice of his. The sound of it echoed in her head. She couldn't think of a word to describe it.

Despite being the guardian associated with love, Minako had never truly allowed herself to fall in love during the war because all of her focus was on protecting the people of both her own world, and the rest of the solar system. Love would be a distraction, but she was certain that one day the war would end, and she could allow herself to let loose and have a romance. Maybe, just maybe, is she had let the rope slide, then she would be having some kind of romance with Kunzite. But something inside of her doubted that Kunzite would be the type of person to settle down and have a family. She didn't believe that he was incapable but he just seemed like the type who would not want to go through the trouble of staying committed, raising a child, and having a wife to keep happy.

Despite their similarities, the two were very different in the point of how they viewed love. They both fought in the name of love, and they both adored their home planet. However, their love was different. Minako's was a passionate love, whereas Kunzite's was a love filled with pride and a slight hint of arrogance. Nevertheless, she admired him and respected him massively, but there were just as many differences as there were similarities between the two. Admittedly this was something that interested her. "This war limits me, princess. There's only so much I can do, it's painfully stressful.

"I know it does, Kunzite. It's the same for me, too. As the heir to the throne I know I have to think realistically and strategically if we want to win the war. But as a girl I can't stop fantasising about what it would be like to lead a normal life with peace and quiet. I'm sick of fighting." she let out a sigh before she realised how poor such a display was, especially as a princess and especially in the presence of Kunzite of all people. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed him giving her a look. "My apologies, Kunzite. But what a perfect representation of my mentality." she smiled, her head tilted towards the bronzing orange sky as nighttime approached.

Kunzite let go of her arm as they stopped walking forward and took a seat on the dark yellow grass, sitting in front of her. His legs were crossed but his arms were stretched out behind him as he lay back slightly. The princess sat down as well however she was more sprawled out and fully lay down on the grass. The soft blades gave her a feeling of comfort as she took a second to embrace the love she felt for her home world and recognise the love her planet felt for her.

Kunzite took a second to admire her golden locks, lighter in shade to the yellow grass, as he watched his princess empathise with her world. "Right now, my priority is to destroy as many of those monkeys as I can. The heavenly kings and the sailor senshi shall unite our forces and lay waste to that disgraceful race." Kunzite's angry tone contrasted with the mood of Minako.

Minako was fully aware that she couldn't suppress this panic much longer - she could not sit and enjoy this moment forever, as much as she wanted to. She had to prepare herself for this banquet as the saiyans had so rudely invited themselves over. She also had to mentally prepare herself for the possibility of a fight. She heard a rustling noise, obviously the grass, and looked up to see Kunzite standing over her, looking down at her with those piercing eyes of his.

"Do pardon me." he said to the princess with a smirk on his face. She knew what was coming. She slid out of the way and to her feet - dodging a strike from his sword. How spontaneous. She quickly transformed into her own battle apparel and summoned her father's sword to her side. He swung his blade at her in which she blocked with her own, a smile spreading across her face -she knew his motive.

Leaping fifteen feet into the air, she flipped and held her sword in position as she prepared to strike him with as much force as possible. She flipped forward and struck his sword with as much force as possible at the handle, knocking it out of his hand and then holding her own sword towards him as she smirked in victory.

"Thanks for the Kunzite, you really know how to get me in the mood." she closed her eyes and smiled, lowering her sword to which she then gasped as she feet her feet go from under her as she landed flat on her face.

"You need to get out of that habit, princess." he let out a light laugh as he put his sword back in its sheath on his belt. He gave the princess his hand as he helped her up on her feet. Minako acknowledged how soft the skin of his hands were. This was unusual seeing as he usually wore gloves, but he was only half dressed in his armour, the rest of his apparel was missing. Despite being on her feet, Minako and Kunzite did not disconnect their hands. His thumb delicately traced her delicate fingers as she admired the feeling of his hand on hers, blushing slightly. "Shall we go?" he asked, letting go (to her chagrin).

"Yes, let's." she smiled and transformed back into her princess apparel.

 **#####**

Trunks walked past the middle ranked saiyans guarding the ship. It was a large, white, spherical ship which could comfortably hold around 20 people. That's all they really needed. Travelling to the Solarian Empire did not take too long in a ship like this. A day at most. Of course, he was proud to say that the one responsible for building something to sleek was not a tuffle, but his own mother. However, the saiyan pod ships were tuffle made, but his mother could not be responsible for every piece of saiyan technology.

"Your highness." a warrior spoke to him. "We've prepared your sleeping quarters for the journey." Trunks seemed to remember this saiyan being a loyal follower of his father. This soldier seemed to genuinely like Trunks. However he couldn't help but notice a few glares in his direction from some other soldiers. Of course this was expected as Trunks was sometimes considered to be a 'mongrel' as an effect of his father's choice of mate. Trunks' human heritage was blatantly obvious due to his purple hair and blue eyes which was unlike Kakarot's two sons. Few people were aware that his sons were not of full saiyan blood because they looked identical to saiyans themselves and found it easier to just pretend to be full saiyan rather than come out as hybrids. They were fierce warriors but they did not work for the saiyan army. Instead they spent the majority of their time on Earth.

Kakarot's younger son was Trunks' best friend, and the pair spent a lot of time together on Earth and eve when Goten came to Vegeta (rare). Unfortunately, it did not appear that Goten would be able to see him this time around which was slightly annoying. However the young prince would be back on Earth soon enough.

"Hey there, leaving so soon?" Trunks immediately recognised this female voice behind him. A true friend of his. Pirintu. He turned around to see her. She wore white armour with black shoulder pads and a brown midsection. Her armour had no bottom part. She wore this on top of a lilac leotard which covered to the middle of her left thigh but none of her right thigh. It also did not cover too much of her chest which left slightly visible cleavage. Her right arm was completely covered by her leotard but her left arm was not covered at all. She adorned white and blue saiyan style combat boots as well as some black fingerless gloves. She had visible muscle lines and her arms and legs were of a decent size. She also adorned black hair which reached her lower back, as well as a friendly smile.

"Hey, Pirintu, have you been assigned to this too?" Trunks asked. The smaller girl laughed and sapped him on the shoulder.

"As if I don't have better things to do than go to a dinner party, your highness." she said sarcastically. Trunks could always count on Pirintu to lighten the mood. She was as witty as she was hot, as well as his childhood friend. Trunks was also proud to say that he had taken her before and his grandfather thought she would be a 'suitable mother to my great-grand brats'. Neither of them wanted to settle or start a relationship though, so they remained friends. They used to spar together as kids, but it didn't take Trunks long to overtake her.

"Well please enlighten me on what ,fun' things you get to do." he said. Nobody could handle his sarcasm as much as Pirintu or his own father. He knew that she most likely didn't have an answer for that question. As an elite soldier, she had done most things that saiyans would ever do so there would be no mission that would particularly excite her. She unwrapped her tail from her waist and waved it in the air like she did not care, very smug indeed.

"Asshole, I get to be on guard duty. And I get to guard your dear brother. How enticing." she said, rolling her eyes. The ongoing grudge between the two sons of Vegeta meant that the friends of the two sons had grudged also. It was a feud of sorts. Pirintu could not stand Gumele and vice versa,. He tried to belittle her one time as a form of humiliation when he did not expect her to absolutely destroy him with her wits in front of his friends on guard duty. Ever since then he did not even try speaking to her. Her and Trunks shared a light laugh at this memory.

"I'm sure you'll both enjoy yourselves." Ha. No.

"Yeah, and I'm sure those Venusians will have some good food. I've never been, but I've heard that their seasonings are to die for."

"It's not just a dinner party. But I can't say I'm not looking forward to that." he smiled. All saiyans, no matter age, size, or gender, all shared a love for food. Saiyans had very large appetites.

"In all seriousness, your highness, please be careful. Don't do anything stupid." this change of tone surprised the prince who was not expecting such seriousness. The mission was peaceful (supposedly) and did not require much saiyan brute force.

"What's brought this on?" he said, slightly concerned. Pirintu was never like this.

"I don't know. I just think that they have a lot of hate towards us saiyans, which is understandable. I don't think they'll be the most welcoming if you know what I mean." Of course she was right, but then again they were weak and by extension they lost the battles.

"Don't worry, Pirintu. They won't try anything stupid if they know what's good for them." he smirked. They wouldn't know what hit them. Pirintu sighed and waved at Trunks as she walked off. "Bye then." he said, turning around and getting ready to make his journey to the Venusian Empire.

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 **Hello there, everyone! Thank you so much for reading and I owe you all an explanation.**

 **I have not updated this in almost a year and I am very sorry about that. As an excuse, I have been very busy with exams and studying and work etc however I am going to add this story to my timetable and I want to upload a new chapter at least every month starting from now. Call it my New Year Resolution.**

 **Let me explain a few things you might be curious about:**

 **1\. Gumele (Legume = French for Vegetable) is Trunks' older half brother who is very violent in nature. Because of this, he and Trunks do not get on. He will be a recurring character.**

 **2\. Vegeta will take the throne soon and will be King**

 **3\. Trunks, at the minute, is a very arrogant and hot-headed character. He is very proud in nature and more destructive but this will change throughout the course of the story.**

 **4\. The trump card is a mystery tool that will help us later**

 **5\. Bulma manufactures machinery for the saiyans, but makes sure these aren't efficient in any way as to prevent them being used too much.**

 **6\. Minako and Trunks are both a bit out of character but the aim is to have this change by the end of the story**

 *** if anything else confuses you then review and I will gladly reply.**

 **I would like to thank my followers/favouriters/reviewers for encouraging me to continue writing. I would update anyway but I appreciate the support. I am so sorry it has taken me this long to update. Things will change in the future.**


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

"But mother, I don't see why we should be putting in this amount of effort for a couple of barbaric animals!" these words wee spoken by Minako. Even though it was true that the saiyans were coming for a banquet and not a party, her mother had ordered the dining hall to be finely and neatly decorated. Not decorated with ribbons and such, but candles and glasses and small ornaments. Adding insult to injury, due to the fact that the saiyans had invited themselves on such short notice meant that the Venusians had little time to prepare so the banquet had to be held on Magellan and not elsewhere where more guards could stand by. However, the fact that Magellan was barely on Venus itself meant that the citizens were out of harms way.

Excluding the Moon, the rest of the main castles of Solaria floated in the skies of their home worlds and sometimes orbited them too. All thanks to the magic of the planetary crystals, many things were able to happen on the planets. Unnatural phenomena all made possible by a few little gems. The most precious things in the solar system by far - a senshi crystal was what granted the senshi themselves to gain their power.

"Minako! What you need to understand is this: Solarians are in quite the predicament until we can use It. We can't risk giving the saiyans any sort of reason to cause more destruction. Remember they quite literally halved the Solarian population." Addienna spoke. Just remembering those dark times of war and destruction caused her eyes to water as she reminisced over the once happy and thriving civilization. It was true that the population still lived somewhat prosperously despite being robbed of materials, a lot of damage was inflicted on the pride of the Solarians. The saiyans had periods of time where they would just come and harvest raw minerals from the planets as well as precious materials. But due to the Venus Crystal, the world remained mostly unharmed. Even if the saiyans depleted all of their natural resources, the Venusians would survive. "My dear child, please let me ask you to put aside your pride for now." Addienna's expression saddened as she walked towards her daughter and placed a reassuring hand on Minako's cheek. She took a short moment to admire just how much like her that her daughter was, although Minako had very different eyes - she had her father's eyes. "Minako…" Minako looked her mother in the eyes, reading every droplet of emotion in them: defeat, anxiety, stress, worry, determination. "Not only are you a powerful soldier and leader, you are also destined to lead the people of this world to a brighter future. You have the crystal and the great amount of power that has been put into it. And not only that…" Addienna had eyes that allowed for her to be read like a book, well, to Minako anyway. "You're all I have left of your dear father. There's no way I'll let the saiyans have the pleasure of robbing me of both my beautiful daughter and chivalrous husband. You make me even more proud each day, so think logically, love." Minako bowed her head down as her mother planted a small kiss on her forehead. Addienna's eyes changed. they read pride, love, care, and countless happy memories.

"Yes, mother. As princess of this world, I'll protect it."

"That's all I ask." said Addienna. Minako sighed. "And kick that sighing habit of yours, you've been spending too much time with Usagi." she said jokingly, and walked off towards her quarters to prepare for the banquet. Minako, on the other hand, was reluctant to put a lot of effort into making herself presentable for the saiyans. As a deity of love, Minako had a lot of positive feelings and emotions. However when it came to the saiyans, the only thing she could muster up was a vile hatred. There was no need for the way they stole and salvaged. There was literally no need for the way that they treated people who were at a disadvantage. They did not know the meaning of the word: mercy. It was simply not in their repertoire.

Murder was not in Minako's nature, but she would quite happily kill a saiyan. Happily.

'I'd best get ready and get this over with' she thought to herself. The wonders of living in a magic castle which floated in the sky was that the castle had magic features too. Such as portals which could only be used by royalty. One of these was on the wall and was not noticeable at all. It was just a wall. Minako walked into the wall and found herself in her bedroom. Admittedly, dressing up was something she loved to do because not only was she a somewhat typical Venusian girl, she was also a goddess of beauty. She had to back up that title of hers of course, even if it did mean dressing up for those saiyans. Currently, Minako adorned a simple denim pair of shorts with a frilly blue kami top. Of course she wasn't intending on wearing these to the banquet so she knew she would have to change. But now she was in the mood.

Minako looked in her wardrobe which was the size of a whole room in itself, and this was just for dresses and shoes. She had a whole other wardrobe for everything else.

Minako walked in and browsed. She set eyes upon a very revealing and mischievious dark blue dress but thought against the idea. She didn't want to give off the wrong impression. She walked deeper into her wardrobe and scanned it with her eyes. She figured that she should stay with traditional colours so the saiyans knew she meant business and represented her world. On the other hand, she did not want to wear a princess dress. Then it hit her.

Minako climbed to the second floor of her wardrobe where all of the yellow dresses were and searched for the one. And then found it. The dress was knee length and was split slightly at the side of the skirt which would reveal her upper thigh. The straps were spaghetti straps which would give her the perfect opportunity to wear her long and transparent blue cape. The bodice was a darker yellow than the wave skirt which had 3 layers, each layer was lighter than the one under it so the top layer was quite light. This also gave her the excuse to wear her strappy heels with bows on the sides. Perfect.

Minako put on the dress first after she had showered, washed and lotioned. The dress tightly hugged her top curves and exposed some cleavage. She styled her hair into a pony tail which she simply draped across her shoulder; simple but effective. On top of her dress she put on her cape as yellow and blue really suited her. She put on her golden olive leaf choker, her golden dangling heart earrings, and then her royal tiara. Minako didn't even have to look at herself to know that she looked stunning. No make up was needed to make her stand out however she did have an idea.

Minako had been gifted a subspace of sorts by Ami in which she could store many things in a separate dimension so that they would always be with her. She summoned her gold glitter from here and spread a little bit of the golden dust on top of her eyes and a bit on top of her cleavage. "This will do. I won't go any further." She smiled at her own beauty and thought: 'Thank you for this gift, Aphrodite.' she then left her room and proceeded to make her way to the main window to see all of the guards. As well as 100 of Venus' own elite guards in their golden armour, she noticed some in blue, green, silver, and red armour too. Courtesy of her aunties of course. She felt safe and secure but knew that she was more than capable of handling herself too.

"I wonder where Kunzite is." she said to herself, gazing out of the window and wondering if she could spot him by his orange cape. She couldn't differentiate between that many people at such a long distance though.

"Right here, princess." she turned around to see him in his silver suit with a golden chest guard and gauntlets. The shining star of the royal guard. He had a simple and vague smile on his face and his eyes were not open. He was obviously not in as good a mood as he was yesterday with her. But then again, nobody was. "Allow me to escort you outside where you and I are supposed to meet the saiyans off of their ship and take them to the dining hall." Kunzite could see the dismay flowing off of Minako as she realised she had to be hospitable to the very race who killed her father and half of her kingdom. "Please, your highness, try to look forward to when it's all over." he said to her as he turned around and began to walk. Minako sighed, this time she didn't care that she was in his presence.

In all honesty, Kunzite's inconsistent attitude towards her was slightly annoying. How could he go from being all playful and open to acting like he didn't give a care in the world? But of course, she had to give him some leniency seeing as he had to be alert all of this time and protect her and her mother. Well, maybe she was defending him a little too much. He hadn't even complimented her appearance which he usually did! How rude. "I'll try, I guess." Minako said in a half hearted tone. She did not try to make much more conversation with Kunzite. She was simply not in the mood for trying. Instead, she focused her energy on mentally preparing to greet the saiyans in a somewhat respectful manner instead of giving them daggers. If only the daggers were literal and not metaphorical. The pair decided that the saiyans did not need to be brought through the throne room as Addienna would want them to leave as soon as possible.

Finally, they reached the outside of the golden palace where they stood and waited for the saiyan ship to land.

"Your highness. Commander." a young lieutenant approached Minako and Kunzite and bowed politely to his princess. "The saiyans are just entering Venusian airspace as we speak. They will land very shortly." completely different to Kunzite, this young man seemed energetic but he was blatantly inexperienced. Why on Venus was he here when it was only supposed to be elites?

"Thank you, lieutenant. Princess, this is Lieutenant Lamont, he is young but he is very skilled in the art of telekinesis. He is a very useful soldier." The young man, seemingly no older than 18, faced his princess and gave a goofy smile, only to receive a glare from Kunzite and bow again.

"Please rise, lieutenant." she spoke, deliberately contradicting Kunzite. He had annoyed her, and this was her way of retaliation. The young man rose and he had a light blush on his cheeks after having a nervous look at his princess. Minako knew that this was the effect she had on many people. Her people treated her with respect and admired her beauty. This young man had light orange hair and freckles which made him look even more in awe as they were coupled with his blush. Poor kid, he probably had no clue what to say. "My personal thanks for your presence on this dangerous night. I truly appreciate it." she started. She cleared her throat. "And that goes for everyone here!" She caught the attention of the guards who all, regardless of position, turned to face her. "I thank you for this act of courage. I'm honoured to have you all here. Please know that your work is not taken for granted!" Minako smiled and bowed her head, only to hear an applause from her guard. On her side, she could hear Kunzite exhale through his nose. If she had wider peripheral vision then she would have been able to see him role his eyes. She smiled. "That goes for you too, Kunzite." He turned to face her as she smiled sweetly at him.

He blushed, slightly, and then returned to looking at the sky. "Thank you, your highness." Ugh, what was with this formality? However she did have to remember that he was in front of his soldiers and had to have the correct etiquette with her. She was royalty after all. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed a light and faint smile on Kunzite's face. Maybe his mood was lightening up after all. She was glad she could do that for him at least, as both his friend and his princess. 'Finally, a little less formality..' she thought to herself, smiling slightly.

But that smile quickly faded when she caught a glimpse of an object slowly getting bigger and bigger from the sky. A large white spherical object was what it seemed to be when Mina squinted her eyes as the object drew closer.

"Your highness," spoke Lamont, "the saiyans have arrived."

"Thank you." she replied. There was a large space which was surrounded by guards in which the ship had landed. The saiyans were here.

#####

"Trunks, I'd like you to see how we do this. This is how saiyans work, my boy." King Vegeta spoke as Trunks walked over to his grandfather. The journey was not the most comfortable as the ship was fairly cramped, but at least they had arrived. Trunks was not particularly looking forward to this and would be damned if those Venusians expected him to be polite.

The ship doors opened and Trunks and his grandfather were behind a group of 10 elite warriors as another 10 stood behind them. Looking past the saiyans ahead he could see the masses of guards who surrounded them - their armour looked very heavy and impractical in comparison to the stretchy and light saiyan armour.

The saiyans began to walk out of the ship and came into view of the golden castle, Magellan. In all honesty, Trunks did think it was a sight to be admired, but who would want to live with so much gold? He'd be sick of it in a day. In his opinion, the Venusians were far too concerned about appearance when surely they had other things to worry about.

Walking off of the ship alongside his grandfather, Trunks felt an ounce of pride to be trusted by the king. Not because it was natural, but because it showed the saiyans that so resented him that he had absolute authority over them. He had the king on his side, and no amount of discrimination and hatred from other members of the saiyan race could nullify this feeling of dominion.

He breathed in fresh air and he had to admit that the air he smelled when he walked off of the ship could only be described as pure and rich. He half closed his eyes, discreetly taking in another large amount of air before he opened his eyes, looked in front of him, and saw the most beautiful woman in which he had ever laid eyes on.

Her expression, although not an overly pleasant one, was strong and confident, but something told him that this confidence was false which suggested to him that she had some sort of fear. But that was only to be expected when being this close to the saiyans. His grandfather was the target of her eyes. It was so easy to tell that she was trying not to give him an evil look, but Trunks couldn't help but notice her true feelings.

His grandfather stepped forward as the saiyans parted to let him through. Her deep, oceanic sapphires followed his grandfather's every step - fixated onto him like glue. Trunks did not look at his grandfather once, as his eyes could not release the woman from his line of vision. And that's when he felt it. A strange muscular contraction in the pit of his stomach. It was his saiyan gut telling him something… but what? And then his nose seemed to blank out everything else around him but one thing. And that one thing smelled so sweet and beautiful and divine. And his gut told him that what he was smelling corresponded perfectly with the main focus of his vision. He couldn't release her, it was just not possible. Trunks was so fixated on the woman that he didn't even notice the sharp and suspicious look he was receiving from multiple members of the Venusian guard and some of the saiyans too.

"Princess Venus, how you've grown since I saw you last." said King Vegeta as he approached her, standing directly in front of her and obscuring Trunks' view which seemed to snap him out of his daze. It made sense that she was the princess seeing as she adorned a tiara and a half formal dress. He did admire her choice of fashion however. It was a bit different to what he had expected from the Venusian princess.

He noticed the change in her expression as she tried to change her expression to a more positive one but seemed to struggle in doing so.

"If I recall, your majesty, the last time you paid me a visit was over a decade ago. You don't seem to have changed at all." it was clearly her attempt at preventing things from becoming awkward. Trunks was sure that she was well aware of her own awkwardness and inability to fully smile. He came to the conclusion that she was holding a massive grudge. But then again this was just what happened when one side dominated another. It ended in hatred and sorrow.

"I'm sure an intelligent young lady like yourself knows of a saiyan's ageing process. And I'm sure you know of our diets too. If you would be so kind as to take us to our destination." said King Vegeta, as he rudely pointed to his stomach. Trunks noted that King Vegeta showed no sign or interest in real formality, but then again, he didn't expect that to happen anyway. Vegeta took great pride in striking fear into other people so Trunks knew that his grandfather would be the same.

The princess' face changed ever so slightly to say that she wanted to slap King Vegeta right there and then. But it changed almost as quickly as it debuted. "Of course, please follow us." her voice was smooth but slightly strained. She was really struggling with keeping herself in check which was something in which the young saiyan prince found slightly amusing. When the princess turned around to lead the way, Trunks noticed another guard standing beside the princess. He was dressed slightly differently and although he wasn't as muscular as a saiyan, he seemed to be very powerful. This man was fairly silver which seemed a little bit out of theme with the golden planet. His silver eyes seemed to burn a hole in all of the other saiyan guards - something which the other guards didn't seem to have the courage or nerve to do. Even the saiyans took caution.

All of the saiyans followed the princess and her personal guard, while every other soldier on the premises faced them and watched them - barely blinking. These Solarians really hated the saiyans. But who could blame them? Some in golden armour followed behind the group as a few more walked directly behind the princess as if she could be attacked at any minute.

They were led up a long hallway with various large stained glass windows of what Trunks assumed to be previous rulers. Despite being engraved in the glass, each depicted ruler was beautiful. But not as beautiful as the lady whose appearance was obscured by the guards shielding her. And eventually, they reached a massive hall with various tables and a buffet big enough to satisfy all of the saiyans apart from the select few who stayed back at the ship. The princess and her guard turned around, ready to address the saiyans; her expression remained unchanged.

"Please allow yourselves to eat and drink, saiyans." she spoke, her eyes slowly scanning all of the saiyans and pointing to where the massive buffet was. "However, the formal meal will be held through here." the other saiyans left to enjoy the banquet which smelled so delicious. But four saiyans remained. Kunzite accompanied the other saiyans after giving the princess a reassuring look. She smiled in return which had to have been the most genuine facial expression she had pulled thus far.

Minako recognised the King of course, and two others who must either be higher ups or powerful warriors in case things went wrong. Or maybe both. But either way they would be dining with her.

And then she locked eyes with him as the other saiyans walked towards the large table where the queen, the archbishop, and her mother's real sister sat, along with her daughter and Minako's cousin.

But Minako could not believe this man was a saiyan. This brief moment felt like ages as she tried to swallow a lump in her throat. Her stoic expression completely mellowed as she tried to take in all of his features. He was so beautiful for a saiyan, but he also had a toughness about him which seemed to begin to fade in the moment. He was broad and muscular like a saiyan, but behind his intimidating expression was a very beautiful man. But his hair was lavender, and his eyes were sky blue! But he had a tail? What was this man? She so desperately wanted to ask, but she had to sit down.

Trunks felt slightly dismayed when she turned around and started walking towards the large table where she took a seat near her mother who sat at the top. There was also an ageing man, a young, pretty girl who looked to be similar in age to the princess, and a very good looking woman who seemed to be the girl's mother.

And then there was the queen. Never had Trunks ever looked at somebody and thought 'majestically beautiful' in his entire life until this very moment. Trunks' visit so far hadn't been as boring as he had thought. Not to say that it was entertaining, but he hadn't pictured himself being so much in awe during his stay. As a half saiyan, he never usually took the time to admire such trivial things - but the rumours about the beauty of Magellan Castle and the Venusian Kingdom were definitely not farfetched.

"Greetings, all." spoke Addienna, and her voice was as majestic as everyone had imagined it to be. The queen scanned her eyes slowly across the table and viewed everyone individually. She seemed to be much better at keeping her inner feelings at bay than her daughter. It was almost as if she held no resentment at all. "I'm sure you'll all enjoy our little banquet. But before we do so, I am but curious as to what your true intentions are for being here." she said it so genuinely, but she was cautious because of her awful history with the saiyans. It was taking Addienna all she had not to blast a hole through King Vegeta's head this very second, but that would only result in more bloodshed.

"Getting straight to the point as usual, Addienna." said King Vegeta, failing to address her by her full title which did not go unnoticed by the other woman at the table.

"Do pardon my saying so, but she is the Queen of this world, and we would all appreciate it if you addressed her as such. You're a guest here." she spoke with elegance and beauty, albeit she was not quite on par with the queen. However the resemblance was so prominent that they could have even been sisters. King Vegeta and Trunks couldn't help but notice the smug and appreciative little grin coming from the princess' lips.

"And who might you be? I don't believe I've ever seen you before." Spoken rather rudely and informally, these words came from no other than the saiyan king himself.

The woman took a breath and started to introduce herself. "I am Lady Ishtar, the sister of the Queen and aunt of the Princess." she spoke with pride and dignity, there was not a hint of jealousy about her. It was clearly obvious that she respected her sister which was evident previously. King Vegeta acknowledged this. How tight familial bonds were in the Solarian Empire was something he found strange.

Completely disregarding Ishtar, Vegeta took almost no notice of her proclamation. "I'll get straight to it then. We want your fuel." a smirk crept up the corner of his mouth as if to say that he already knew that he was going to get what he wanted. But what more could someone expect from the arrogance of a saiyan?

Addienna sighed. Of course, it would only be a matter of time before the saiyans started to realise that the amount of resources they were depleting her planet of was not correlating to the wealthy and easy-living lives her people were enjoying. But being able to hold off this long was surprising enough.

"You have our fuel. We give you 60% of our natural resources." she spoke in a matter of fact kind of way, just as the food was being laid on the table. The saiyans ate with decent manners, which was surprising as they were well aware of a saiyan's usual appetite. _This must be them trying their hardest to be formal_ thought the queen. King Vegeta swallowed a large mouthful and cleared his throat.

"It's been duly noted that you lack the resources to live the lives you Venusians live. Castles don't fly on their own, Addienna, and you can't just magically make a shield that protects you from acid rain." Addienna's face changed slightly. King Vegeta was a rude man, but he was intelligent to say the least.

Of course, Venus has a harsh natural environment so the crystal had granted them a magical shield which protected the planet from acid rain. If the crystal were to be corrupted, then the rain would kill every Venusian/ inhabitant of Venus. But the saiyans were oblivious to this. It wasn't exactly in a saiyan's nature to study the environment, but they were bound to notice eventually.

"We manage, Vegeta. But take note that it's no easy task for me to provide this lifestyle for my people." Just because she was beautiful, did not mean that she was honest. Addienna had little to no effort to put into helping the kingdom live a lavish life. But she had to be tactical with her lies.

All of the Venusians sat at the table caught on board with their queen's lie. More eating took place as Vegeta opened his mouth again.

"You seem to live quite a lavish life yourself. I can only wonder what it's like to sit down doing nothing all day apart from receiving gifts from your people and attending formal appearances and making a few laws." Vegeta didn't even say this in a slightly joking tone. It was as if he disrespected her for being able to live in luxury. Addienna didn't respond to that at first, but some retorts went through her mind as she wondered how to retaliate.

Meanwhile, Minako had something to say. "In any other solar system it would be extremely rare to find a ruler who isn't power hungry, domineering and cruel and is still kind to their subjects. But Venus, as well as the other worlds in Solaria, have exactly that." she acquired a moment of courage and looked the king straight into his onyx eyes. "Which is more than what can be said of a ruler like yourself." Addienna could only feel pride in her daughter's words as Minako expressed her admiration for her mother, as well as an insult to the King. Her daughter had the quick mind of her mother, and the wittiness of her father. With Minako, Addienna's heart didn't have such a gaping hole in it which came with her husband's brutal murder. Every day, Minako reminded her more and more of him. Without even realising it, Addienna had lost her formal expression and only smiled at her daughter.

"Well I see the little princess seems to struggle more with keeping her feelings hidden more than her mother. I'm impressed, Princess." King Vegeta half-smiled nd raised an eyebrow. Minako shot him a blank expression in response. "But I didn't come here to ask what you think of me. I'm pretty sure I already know, which is understandable." King Vegeta showed no remorse in his words. The next dish was brought out and everyone began to eat.

Minako noticed some of the cooks and waiters giving her proud smiles, as if to applaud her for speaking out against the king. She'd known these people since she was a toddler, so it was only natural for her to be close to them. She wasn't just speaking to represent herself, she was speaking for everybody. But her confidence soon diminished.

Trunks thought that Venusians always did whatever they could to look good. But that princess went against that by calling out his grandfather - he was impressed.

"If I may." spoke the archbishop. "Can I ask you, Lady Estella, to inform the saiyans on the statistics of what they take. The young woman, not older than eighteen, nodded her head. She was the cousin of Minako, and if Minako was ever killed or stopped being a senshi, then the Venus Crystal would return to Addienna, and then granted to her. In short, she was the reserve Sailor Venus, and third in line to the throne.

Estella waved her hand and a golden graph made of light, showing a bunch of numbers, was seen.

"These numbers show that you take an exponential amount from us: you take most of our metals, coal, oil, and more. Not to mention the fact that you cut down a whole forest last year. The only thing you don't take is our food and fertilisers. But you said that you plan to start stealing those too." this girl could've been a princess. Her eyes were more calm than the princess' and they were light gold in colour. Her hair was a very light blonde, which faded into a brown towards the bottom. Her skin was slightly more tanned as well. But her beauty was not on par with the princess'. "By next year, we'll be struggling more than every before. So I'd like you to know how much we would appreciate it if you would cease this robbery." her face didn't display any feelings of contempt, but she did feel it. She may not be the princess, but she cares about the people of Venus too.

Trunks sighed. It was indirectly his mother's fault that this was the case. Bulma deliberately manufactured machinery that used up exponential amounts of fuel so they would be exceedingly difficult and draining to operate. Unfortunately for the Solarians, this meant that more was taken from them to compensate for the lack of fuel on Vegeta needed to power the machines. Earth was spared this robbery for the simple reason that Bulma had refused to make machines for the saiyans if they robbed her home world. Of course, she had Vegeta on her side too, so the King had no choice but to comply. Even so, Bulma still felt massive guilt for what she was having to do to save her own world as it meant that the saiyans were using her tech to enslave other planets. But she had to do what she had to do if she wanted her precious Earth to remain in tact. Her home. And Trunks' place of birth.

"How lovely, Lady Estella." King Vegeta spoke. "You spoke with such elegance and grace, as well as intelligence, that I think that _you_ should be the princess instead of this rude little girl. King Vegeta pointed at Minako, to which she then refused to keep her looks in check and shot him a menacing glare. He only smiled it off. The next dish was brought out and the table began to eat. "But, we won't be stopping our theft of your resources. If anything, we plan to take some more to power our machines. But I do appreciate your manners." he smiled at Estella and she ashamedly looked down to her side to avoid looking at him. Addienna, Ishtar, Minako, and the Archbishop (Montes) all gave Estella a comforting smile.

"That being said, I didn't come here to discuss all of this with you, _Queen_ Addienna." spoke Vegeta, looking at Ishtar sarcastically while placing emphasis on the word. "I came because I want the true source of power from this planet. And you can tell me as much as you want to that I'm wrong. But I'm going to get it one way or another." This came as a sudden change of tone, and the Venusians must have somehow changed their facial expressions, giving Vegeta the satisfaction of knowing that he was right.

Minako was particularly worried. The Venus Crystal lay within her heart as its power was resonated in her. All Venusians were influenced by it, and Addienna used the power that it left her.

Minako wasn't stupid enough to present the crystal, so even if Vegeta did 'get' her, then they would not take its power. The saiyans weren't smart enough to know what they were trying to do.

"So here." Vegeta said. He pulled out what looked like some sort of control button from his cloak and pressed a button on it, which apparently did nothing. The Venusians gave each other panicked looks, and then a Venusian guard left the room, seemingly to go and check what was up.

For dessert, a small cake was served each, and the king rudely ate it in a short amount of time. Trunks didn't follow his example. Trunks knew what was coming. "What did you just do, Vegeta?!" Addienna spoke, in quite the frenzy. He only smirked.

"Look who's being informal now." He pointed at Addienna and addressed Lady Ishtar. "But I did say that I'll be getting what I came for, one way or another." He laughed, a big hearty laugh as Trunks smirked in admiration of his grandfather.

The Venusian guard came running back into the room between the rest of the saiyans and the formal meal.

"Your Majesty! Captain Kunzite! Three more saiyan ships have entered Venusian atmosphere!" He spoke in a panic. And as he said it, a hoard of energy blasts and fighting could be seen out the window…

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 **Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed the chapter, I enjoyed writing it! And I'm sure you're going to enjoy the action and drama that's to come. I'm sorry I didn't finish it sooner. And again I can't promise a hasty update as I am dangerously close to some very important exams which will play a large part in my application to university. However I will use my relaxation time to update this fic as it helps me to relax and get my mind on a word document.**

 **I'm very aware that this fic doesn't get a lot of views, which I'm perfectly okay with even though I put a lot of thought into it. So thank you so much for taking the time to read it. Hopefully the next chapter will be completed and uploaded within the next month so you shouldn't be waiting too long. Until then, goodbye!**

 **Also, thank you to my reviewers! I really appreciate everyone's opinions. Please feel free to post any constructive criticism, anything which makes you guys happy. Tata for now.**


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The saiyans in the banquet hall began to attack the Venusian guards, who were holding their own.

And at that very moment, Trunks, the king, and the other two saiyans at the table stood up and looked as if they were about to fight.

"Princess, leave now!" Ishtar commanded her niece. Minako knew that she had no other choice, but she couldn't bring herself to abandon her family when they were in danger of being killed.

"I'm not fragile! I'm the leader of the senshi!" Her mother looked lost for words upon realisation that they were almost definitely about to be overwhelmed. Minako and Estella looked at each other before they both transformed.

"Venus Eternal Power!"

"Power of the Holy Land, lend me your strength!" The two girls stood in their battle apparel as the guards tried to apprehend the King and the other saiyans. But Trunks took them all out before anyone could blink. He must be an amazing warrior.

"Trunks, you know what to do." Vegeta smirked. Trunks, again, had Minako in his view as he knew that it was time to capture the princess. It only took him a brief second to look her up and down and admire the very short apparel she adorned. His gut clenched at the sight of her, but right now he couldn't stand there and comprehend why.

"Venus Love Me Chain Encircle!" And before Trunks could take another step, Addienna had apprehended him in her version of the Love Chain. "Daughter, I'm not asking! You know where to go!" Addienna was holding Trunks with all of her strength as the boy began to power up. She was straining. Tears were in her eyes as she thought of the worst that could happen to her daughter.

 _Mother please_ _…_ Minako telepathically spoke to her mother. _Minako, think of the kingdom. You_ _'_ _re our last hope. Go to the throne room and don_ _'_ _t even bother going to Venusian safe place. They could destroy this world. Head to one of our sisters! This isn_ _'_ _t goodbye, daughter. Now flee._ Addienna replied before cutting the link. As Minako began to feel her eyes prick, her aunt and cousin, who must have joined the link too, stood before her, barricading her from the saiyans ready to pounce and shooed her away in agreement as the other two saiyans began to advance upon them. They defeated them instantly, but Trunks broke free from his bonds as Addienna failed to hold him back.

"I'm so sorry everyone!" she said. But before she departed she left a present. "Double Venus Beam Smash!" she shouted, as two beams shot from her hands, one to the king, and one to Trunks. King Vegeta was taken aback by it, but Trunks deflected it. However this gave Minako ample time to run for the nearest wall.

Trunks didn't understand why she was running into a dead end, but at least she wouldn't be hard to catch. He rubbed his bleeding arm, her attack was easily deflected, but that shit burned. Slightly pissed off from his minor wound, he began to give chase, but not too fast, knowing that she was cornered by the wall. But she showed no signs of slowing when she reached the wall.

She ran into the wall. And then she was in the throne room.

King Vegeta and Trunks stood baffled after witnessing Minako run into a wall and disappear. "Very clever to have portals!" Vegeta said, as Trunks ran into the wall as well, but couldn't use the portal for some reason. What kind of super advanced technology was this? Trunks was very annoyed by that, and made it his mission to go and find her before she went away.

Unbeknownst to her, he'd been stealing sly glances at her during the meal all night, although she did meet his gaze every so often but had shrugged it off due to general uneasiness. Minako found herself in the throne room which was actually a ten minute walk from the banquet hall. She was spat out of another stained-glass window, but not any of the planetary ones. Minako decided that she had time to set a plan before she would be found. But surely the guards could hold their own, they were the best of the best after all. Glancing outside via a window that could be looked out of, but not into, Minako saw that the guards were winning as beams of light could be seen flashing, and saiyans being knocked out cold. Did that mean that she didn't have to flee? But surely it would be worth seeking help from another world though, right?

But the Venusian had very little idea that standing in the throne room where she thought that she was safe was a very bad idea. Of course she thought that being so close to portals meant that she could easily escape, but the poor little princess had no idea how wrong she was as the saiyan hybrid prince had not only sensed her power, but tracked her scent. The moment he'd caught her scent, he'd unknowingly and subconsciously embedded it into his brain. And because of that, she was easy to pick out from anyone else.

As Minako began to walk the hundred paces or so towards the portals, a certain saiyan prince silently found his way into the throne room, checking to make sure that she couldn't pull another one of her disappearing acts again. She wouldn't be able to react by the time he was behind her.

Minako felt a presence in the room, and her heart almost stopped beating. In her hand she charged up another attack, and quickly spun around to fire it to where she thought the person was. But he was much closer than she anticipated, not even a step away. His towering presence was more than intimidating in this situation as he had caught her hand, preventing her from firing the blast although it did slightly burn his skin.

She found herself looking up at his face as she realised that she had little chance of getting out of this. "It's you…" she trailed off, her voice slightly shaky with an expression of fear painted on her face. But she couldn't help but scan his colourings, how could a saiyan, which he was evidently so, have such beautiful, pastel colourings? And his hair looked soft as strands moved with his movements, dissimilar to how a saiyan's hair usually stayed relatively static.

Her attack had simmered out, and he only winced at the pain it had caused him. But to him, it was a sign of weakness as he chastised himself for showing injury in front of his 'prey'. He realised that she had acknowledged her defeat as her expression read that of a deer in headlights. But she was fighting back tears - she refused to cry in front of him. "Yeah. Don't bother fighting back you've already lost." she scowled at him. Trunks was surprised that such a magnificently gorgeous woman was capable of pulling such a vile face. Of course it didn't make her ugly but it was hardly graceful.

"We haven't. My guards have already defeated yours. It's only a matter of time before they come and save me. And my family are more than a match for your grandfather when they combine their strength." she said this with the utmost confidence as her scowl turned into a confident smirk. If only she knew.

A loud explosion was heard from outside as Trunks locked Minako's gaze in his own. She knew that if she looked away, then she had lost to him. But she had to know what that was as her confidence slipped from under her. Slowly turning her head, she noticed more saiyan ships arriving filled with more saiyans and shooting at her guard. The screams of her people pierced her heart as she realised that the saiyans had succeeded in doing what the saiyans do best - murder.

Minako's expression was defeated and broken, knowing that not only had she lost, but her people were being slaughtered out there. "…Why are you doing this?" she said, looking away from Trunks as she began to tremble out of a combination of fear and anger. This time she glared right into Trunks' eyes. "Why?! What the hell have we done to you these past fifteen years?! We've given you everything! And you're killing us!"

Trunks actually felt a pang of sympathy for this girl, courtesy to his human side. "Because we came to take more. So we're taking you." And then she stopped. Her tears and anger had diminished as she un-tensed.

Minako recalled something that her mother had told her. _It's one thing to love your subjects. It's another thing to channel all that love into protecting them. It's a duty we uphold as rulers of this world. And I know you'll be just great at it, love._

And after recalling that, Minako knew exactly what she needed to do. She looked away from Trunks and at her feet in shame. "Call off your soldiers."

Trunks was slightly confused. Why would she ask him a question she knew he wouldn't commit to. "And just take me. I surrender. I'll go peacefully." she backed away from Trunks slightly. He sensed her defeat and let go of her as she backed away from him and detransformed. Her outfit was now a simple yellow sundress and she adorned sandals on her feet. She knelt down, as she descended, her pride left her body. She had to rise up by kneeling down, and fulfil her duty as guardian of Venus. On both knees, Minako fully sunk into sitting, as three other saiyan soldiers burst into the room and rushed towards the duo.

"She's surrendered." the pastel prince said. "So restrain her and lets go."

The soldiers wasted no time in shoving her face onto the floor and shackling her with some cold, hard, iron chains. Minako couldn't even cry as she was forced up and dragged along by the saiyans. But the explosions hadn't stopped as Magellan castle tremored. Trunks walked along and decided that he didn't want to navigate through the castle to the outside, so instead he destructively destroyed a large window and hovered down, while Minako was pulled out too. Not only could she not really fly, but the saiyan didn't even bother to carry her, so she dangled and hit the ground with a very painful bump.

And true to his word, Trunks gave the order. "We have what we came for! Let's go!" it was clearly obvious to him that the saiyans weren't all that fond of taking orders from him, but he took pleasure in the fact that they had no other choice.

All of the saiyans scurried back to their ships and Minako saw King Vegeta come into view…but where was her mother if that was the case?

"Good job, boy. Now let's go." Minako could only question the whereabouts of her mother and family and…Kunzite? Surely these saiyans, despite being upper class, could take down a warrior like Kunzite. And surely he'd come to save her no matter what, wouldn't he? He _was_ assigned to protect her and her mother by all means. But then the jigsaw came together. Kunzite wasn't coming. Kunzite was protecting her family like the valiant knight he was. She respected him for that, but only wish that he could save her too.

#####

"Kunzite let me go! That's an order!" Addienna yelled as Kunzite restrained her, denying her permission to go after her daughter. "I'm the queen! Listen to me!" Quite the opposite of her calm demeanour earlier on, Addienna couldn't bare the thought of the saiyans stealing her daughter. What would they do to her? What if they did the same to her Minako as they did to her husband? Or worse. The saiyans were violent in nature, in every single way. She couldn't let her daughter go through anything so unholy or else she had failed as a mother and as a queen.

"Addi, please think logically, we will get dear Minako back! But we can't afford to lose the queen _and_ the princess. Please Addi!" spoke Ishtar, but Addienna couldn't keep herself in check. All of her soldiers, if not dead, were defeated by the barbarians. The saiyans had unexpectedly tripled in number with the arrival of the other two ships. And they were so fast that there wasn't enough time to call in reinforcements. The only thing Addi could do was sit and listen and cry. She should've known.

As if reading her thoughts, her dear sister spoke up. "There's no possible way you could've known, big sister. And Minako's a fighter. She wouldn't let anyone take our crystal and nobody could break her spirit. And I promise you that we'll get her back." although reassuring, Ishtar had tears in her eyes and so did Estella. Losing family was something that nobody wanted to go through. Kunzite clenched his fist in anger.

"Lady Estella," he began. The young lady snapped her head up and looked Kunzite straight into his silver eyes with pure respect and admiration. "Please don't let the queen leave." he gave her the ties to Addienna's restraints and both Estella and Ishtar held her still. Estella sighed as she watched Kunzite run off to go and save her little cousin.

#####

The closer she got to the ship, the more she felt her self control slipping as she wanted to kill these saiyans right here and now as she looked upon the corpses and casualties of her guard. And then she saw that sweet young boy…Lamont? His limbs were twisted into a way that made her want to be sick. The innocence of that young boy and what they had done to him were just so wrong it made her stomach churn. And that's when she lost her grip.

She screamed, gaining her the full attention of Trunks, and the saiyans who were pulling her along by her chains. Using her strength, she snapped her chains and was free, before firing an attack at King Vegeta. Knowing full well this could get her killed. But she'd lost control. "Venus Heart Attack!" a heart shaped beam of energy escaped from her hands towards the King, but Trunks deflected it and almost immediately pinned her to the ground, forcing her hands together and tying them with energy cuffs. She struggled as his body prevented her from attacking in any way, shape, or form. She was pissed as this was also humiliating. He dragged them up and personally pulled her to the ship, but sensed a powerful attack heading his way.

This really wasn't Trunks' day. He just wanted to get this over with. But the attack stopped and then fired many mini-beams from it, taking out at least thirty saiyans who weren't on ships yet. They weren't going anywhere at this rate.

Minako recognised the attack and smiled in hope of being rescued. Minako shot another blast, this time at Trunks who deflected it which gave her ample time to run for it as the other saiyans who weren't on ships were out of commission.

Kunzite then hoped to blast Trunks again and save the princess, the two made a good pair. This was all happening so fast. But before Kunzite could finish his attack, Trunks began to let off a tremendous amount of energy as his eyes turned teal and his hair spiked and turned blonde. The princess stopped in her tracks as she felt the immense pressure come off of him. Intimidated was an understatement as she felt that this wasn't just a hair change. It was a transformation of a massive magnitude. She wanted to be sick.

Trunks' massive energy burst, coupled with the lack of Venusian guard, gave the saiyans ample time to retrieve their injured comrades as Trunks tracked down Kunzite.

Kunzite realised that they weren't going to win. _I'm sorry_ he thought to Minako, as he rushed back into the castle and to the throne room, ushering the Venusian nobles towards their safe portal. _Forgive me, my princess._

Mina could've sworn that she heard somebody apologise to her, but it was too late because she found herself on a saiyan ship preparing to launch as soon as Trunks boarded. Minako was carelessly thrown on the floor by a giant of a man who looked to be about seven foot tall. But saiyans often varied in shape and size as the warriors were the most muscular. Evidently, this ship was full of warriors and she guessed that the other two were the same. Was this it?

Minako felt herself being dragged along the floor. The saiyan wasted no time in trying to make sure that he wasn't hurting her, how dare he? She was a princess, not a slave. It took Minako a minute to adjust to the change in their language as they now spoke a saiyan tongue, which by chance she was fluent in. Languages were Minako's strong point. Not being as academic as Ami was slightly discouraging, but none of the senshi were near her academic brilliance. However, Minako spoke many languages which was something she had a small amount of pride in. Vanity was not beautiful, so she rarely flaunted her abilities.

"King Vegeta. Prince Trunks." this was spoken by the saiyan who had so carelessly dragged her ass across the floor earlier on. She felt the ship suddenly change drastically in speed. She couldn't even look out of a window to say goodbye to her motherland. She simply shed a tear, trying to refuse to cry in front of these animals, but she felt it coming. She was going to break down again.

"We have around seventy casualties split between us. As much as I hate to admit it we would've been beaten if not for the arrival of reinforcements." This saiyan spoke with a hateful voice, almost with contempt. But then Minako was able to relate it to saiyan nature, so she wasn't necessarily surprised. Minako avoided looking at the saiyans, she would act as though she was dumb to the language. It was her best bet at gathering any kind of intelligence. But before she could continue thinking of some sort of plan, she started to tremble.

Why?

She wasn't thinking about her fate just then. But her body knew that she was now a prisoner of war, something that she couldn't fathom at this point. It was just too much. Too sudden. A Venusian princess wasn't prepared to deal with situations like this. It wasn't in her nature. But it was in the saiyans' nature to be a brutal race, and that's exactly what they were doing.

Minako could only imagine what sick and twisted things they would do to her to try and get information out of her. To steal her power. They weren't stupid if they wanted to kidnap a member of the royal family and succeed. They knew she had something. Or they knew she was the key to getting something. But whichever option it was, the latter or the former, Minako knew that she was in deep shit.

"We might seriously have to think about turning that world into space dust if they continue to get so strong." Minako struggled not to burst into tears at that point. Those words of King Vegeta burning a hole through her heart. She shook more violently, desperately trying to contain her fear. But she couldn't, hopefully the saiyans would put it down to nerves.

Minako's sudden change wasn't unnoticed by all however. Trunks had noticed that as soon as his grandfather had uttered those words, the Venusian seemed to know his intentions. So she spoke the language? He didn't know that Solarians got taught that language. He decided to test a theory amidst his grandfather's conversation with Nappa as the Venusian began to control herself a bit more. "I'd happily reduce that planet to rubble. It wouldn't take much." his grandfather and Nappa nodded in agreement. But the only thing Trunks acknowledged was her clenching her fists in pure hatred and anger. Her tears becoming less violent, but her body language becoming more so as she reared her head back almost as soon as she had turned it after he had said that statement.

She lost her shit that very moment. She broke out of her cuffs and forced her trembling frame upwards. Her eyes had an angry fire in them, and she looked as if she were about to explode. That affirmed to Trunks that the Venusian spoke Saiya-jin. But almost as soon as she stood up, Mina realised something. She realised that she was stranded. She couldn't fly this ship. She couldn't expect to defeat so many saiyans, especially seeing as that super, golden warrior was on here too. And then that fire was extinguished.

Nappa grunted and stomped over to the golden princess. She grimaced as she realised how helpless she was. And that nobody here was on her side. And that nobody was coming to save her. And that she was alone…

Minako hit the ground faster than a rock as she felt her cheek burn in pain. Had she just been hit with a boulder to the face? That's what it felt like until it took her a second to deduce that she had been - not just slapped- but backhanded by this bald brute. Her face was on fire, and she could feel a bruise coming already which would be healed almost as quickly as it took appearance thanks to her Venus Crystal. But the pain was intense. She'd never been slapped that hard before. "Bastard…" she mumbled under her breath, biting back tears.

"What did you say to me, you little bitch?!" the saiyan, spat, standing over her and looking at her with a killing intent. She glared daggers at him, refusing to back down. She was going to be beaten and tortured on the planet anyway, so it made no difference what they did to her here. She finally began to acknowledge the severity of her situation. "Have it your way then." his scowl turned to an evil smile, as he lifted his boot.

Minako closed her eyes and tried to shield her face, knowing that he was going to stomp on her. But it didn't come. Instead, she heard a primal, deep growl come from somebody.

Trunks' body seemed to move on its own, and he couldn't recognise why. His hand was wrapped around Nappa's wrist as he forcefully pulled the saiyan back. And as soon as he'd done so, not just Minako, but everyone within hearing proximity turned to look at him in shock. This demonstrated the backwards nature of the saiyans again, as they wouldn't bat an eyelid when this 'Nappa' fellow had slapped her, but they all turned to look when 'Trunks' had stopped her from being stomped on. Bizarre and sickening.

Trunks only realised what he had done when he felt the whole deck stare at him. But he growled again, this time in authority rather than anger. "What?" he snarled, lowly. The rest of the saiyans turned back to whatever they were doing, avoiding starting any trouble with their prince.

Minako dared to look at him as his own blue eyes met her own. His stern expression slightly softened, and then hardened a little bit as he knelt down to her level. She ever so slightly flinched like a timid animal as his face grew nearer. "Don't worry. You're not going to get hurt on this ship anymore." it was his pitiful attempt at trying to calm her down, but she'd already seemed to have gotten a hold of herself. She nodded, knowing that she would be faced with her fate afterwards anyway.

And before she could really react, he slung her over his shoulders like sack of potatoes. "Hey what are yo-"

"I think it would be best if you didn't protest." he stated, walking into a small room with nothing in it and dropping her on the floor on her backside. She grumbled in annoyance more than anything, rubbing her tooshie but slightly relieved that she would be separated from the other saiyans for the rest of the journey. "I'm doing you a favour." she stopped pitying her butt and looked up at him.

He wasn't as large as 'Nappa', but looking up at a man who was so muscular, and she knew that he was powerful, sent shivers down her spine. She couldn't help but gulp as his cold, blue eyes held her own in a sharp gaze. This was a different impression and view she had of him from the first time they locked eyes at the banquet. He seemed to be more…cold? He had a cruel look about him, as if his leaderly role and little scene after asserting his dominance over the other saiyans back there had fuelled his saiyan side. He looked more like a saiyan now, rather than a mystery. But by Aphrodite she had never seen a beautiful saiyan before. Yes, many were large and radiated masculinity, and many were good-looking. But this beast of a man was arguably one of the most gorgeous men she had ever faced. But then she realised that her concentration of the matter at hand was slipping as her little moment of admiration was set aside and dumped. She had been kidnapped and she was going to be a prisoner of war. And this was also the man who claimed that he would reduce her world to mere space dust!

Trunks locked eyes with the princess as he noticed the fire in her gleaming eyes had extinguished. Not only did he analyse her strikingly beautiful features and the strength that hid behind the atmosphere of a pretty little princess, he also noticed her eyes doing the exact same to him; trying to figure him out, trying to understand why he was different, and maybe even admiring him? But he wasn't stupid enough to make such assumptions. Now was hardly the time to find a mate, especially one who was a large part of the enemy and would gladly extinguish the entire saiyan race if given the chance.

He knelt down to her level, she didn't flinch or back away, somehow knowing that he wasn't going to hurt her. But he felt her breathing quicken and sensed her elevated pulse. And then her scent filled his nostrils again, further etching itself deep into his brain and for the life of him he couldn't figure out why. And then he remembered that Venusians were beings of love and lust which was a possible explanation for his heightened notice of her.

He gently put his hands out, slowly as not to scare her and treating her like she was some sort of timid animal who may either lash out or run away at any second. But she had nowhere to go and subsequently had no choice but to accept him. Her breathing didn't seem to show a fear of him though, it was more of a nervousness and confusion.

His hands reached out and took her wrists. And then he felt it, a jolt of electricity run up his body and cause him to sharply inhale. But he had to put it down to the fact that she was Venusian, and refused to acknowledge it. He cuffed her again, but this time more gently than last time. Almost reluctant to let go of her wrists, he forced himself off of her skin before she tried to put him under another spell. It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her to stop. But then he would look stupid, admitting that he was yielding to her.

Minako on the other hand was very confused. This saiyan was treating her more so like she was a piece of glass which completely opposed to the way Nappa had abused her. It calmed her down a little bit and was a slight bit of reassurance. Her breathing began to steady as he gently stroked her wrists, acknowledging the marks from her previous restraints. But somewhere, she had the feeling that he had no idea how gentle he was being as she didn't see him blink. And then he snapped out of it.

"I'd be careful if I were you. Don't keep having outbursts like that." He calmly spoke, not breaking the intense eye contact he held with her at all, holding her in place, pinning her down. But he wasn't. But then why did it feel that way? He sternly lectured her, but she sensed no malicious intent.

"Yeah. Not my best move." her voice was nothing more than a whisper.

"Be careful. Saiyans don't really understand the concept of mercy. Saiyans have a tendency to be brutal." he said the words with a sort of kindness which contrasted to the nature of the message he had just conveyed. But she'd already began trying to mentally prep herself for what was to come. And before she could figure out how to reply, he stood up and walked away.

He didn't realise how close he was getting to her. He shrugged off her alluring nature, putting it down to her Venusian abilities, and decided to nap until they reached Planet Vegeta.

Well, he _hoped_ that his little act of kindness towards the princess was due to her abilities, because if it wasn't, he could risk everything.

#####

Minako sat locked up and isolated, unwilling to try and attack the saiyans again knowing full well that she could die.

"Saiyans have a tendency to be brutal." she murmured to herself, and then half-smiled. "You don't say, _Trunks_." she gave a half laugh also, accepting that her fate was soon to come. Of course she would meet the same fate as her father eventually. Saiyans were only good for killing people and asserting their dominance. There was no saiyan out there who had a good heart, they were all evil bastards. And hopefully when their trump card was finally activated, then the whole race would be exterminated like the disgusting creatures they were.

"Oh, I'm talking to myself…" she trailed off. And after a few moments of silence she burst into a display of tears, laughing hysterically as she did so. "I can't do this! I don't have a choice! I'm a princess, for love's sake!" her tears worsened and she felt her cheeks heat up. Her fate closed in on her as she heard one of the saiyans bark in their mother tongue that they were approaching Vegeta. It had been a day after all. A day all by herself in this cramped little room. But if that wasn't enough to send her insane, then what was to come would surely do the trick.

#####

"Home at last." King Vegeta rudely barged in on the princess, earning himself a menacing glare from her. "Well, it will be your home for a _very_ long time, princess, so why don't you make the most of it?" he gave her a sarcastic smile and she had to remove herself from keeping eye-contact with him. His onyx eyes bore holes in her own ones. She lacked the courage to retaliate - she wasn't home anymore. She was alone on an alien planet where its inhabitants would be more than happy to tear her body apart.

But maybe, just maybe if she played her cards right, she could survive until the trump card was activated. But that would be a very long time to wait.

"Remember me?" it was a familiar, cold and deep voice that sounded in her ears, and Minako looked upwards and recognised Nappa. She glared at him too, but he growled in response and immediately shut her down. What a repulsive and animalistic thing to do. "We'll be taking a little trek to your new room, _princess._ " and when her eyes so blatantly gave a look of fear, Nappa and King Vegeta gave a hearty laugh, as if this whole ordeal was hilarious. Nappa's giant form approach her, and she couldn't hold back a gulp. His foot stomped down beside her and she flinched - instinct after his earlier display of violence. Her cheek was slightly bruised, but she would've been more injured if it wasn't for her power.

Grabbing the chain that was attached to the cuff on her neck, Nappa yanked her out of her position and dragged her out of the ship, her bare skin scraped against the cold, hard floor. It wasn't until she saw the hard pebbles of the outside that she decided to spring to her feet.

"Have fun in the dungeon, princess!" King Vegeta mocked her, sarcastically waving her off. She couldn't even bring herself to scowl as she found her whole previous demeanour slowly fading. This was it. She had arrived. She would be tortured soon and she was probably never going home.

Dark thought loomed in the golden princess' head as her legs trembled under the torturous gravity of this monstrous rock. She'd completely forgotten about it.

"Having fun there, princess? A bit heavier than Venus." Nappa spoke, but she could barely find the strength to walk, let alone speak. Dammit, no wonder all of these saiyans were so muscular. It was like carrying a literal weight on her shoulders all the time. Nappa chuckled to himself, oh boy would she hate it here.

#####

Addienna lay on the cold, hard marble of the floor, sobbing her heart out as her sister, niece, and the Archbishop surrounded her. Ishtar and Estella had tears running down their cheeks, but Addienna's screams of agony dwarfed both of their displays of pity. "My Minako! My Minako!" was all that she could say, with each repetition of the phrase further breaking the hearts of her niece and sister.

"Addi," Ishtar began, kneeling on the floor and placing a hand on her sister's face, gently wiping away the tears. "we'll see her again. We all know that Mina's a fighter. She's the strongest girl in our solar system and she'll protect the planet with her life." The words were meant to be reassuring, but Ishtar could tell that her words had no effect on the anguishing monarch. Addienna hadn't moved for 12 hours even after being prompted by guards and servants alike. The archbishop had only just returned after 11 hours seeing as he had to go and inform the Venusian High Council of the event which had transpired.

I was undecided on whether the planet should be told of Minako's disappearance as it would cause widespread pain. The people's burning desire for revenge would only grow which would lead to a very unhappy population. Probably killing saiyan visitors when they came. Addienna could only imagine what that would lead to.

Kunzite walked into the room, armour off, and a sullen look in his face. His friends and comrades, as well as his princess, were gone.

The others may have only given him a quick glance when he walked towards them, but Estella's crafty eyes noticed the redness in Kunzite's. Of course, he had been crying but he put his duty before his own feelings, denying himself any time to mourn. And there was no man that she admired more. Maybe, just maybe, with her cousin's absence she could turn Kunzite's head.

#####

With more strength than necessary, Nappa threw Minako from his grip and consequently her back hit the opposing wall of the dungeon cell with a thud before gravity took its toll and pulled her to the ground. She could see the smirk forming on his mouth when her hand travelled to her back to comfort herself somewhat. It was on the tip of her tongue to call him a bastard again, but the prince was not here this time to keep him in order and she got the feeling that this Nappa could be very aggressive and unnecessarily violent if given the chance - not that she expected much better from a saiyan.

"You'll be interrogated later. But we've taken into account your royal status and King Vegeta was generous enough to have set you out a lovely pot to piss in and a cell big enough for you to take about five paces. You're very welcome." he ended his little speech with an evil smirk which made Minako want to slap that ugly little moustache right off of his potato shaped head. But she didn't have the energy or the willpower to do that - this gravity really was going to take a while to get used to. She hadn't done resistance training since she was fifteen. Cardio was more her specialty.

The lump of a saiyan spoke to someone who Minako assumed was a guard. He was smaller in stature than Nappa and had a head of hair unlike his superior. Remembering that she was keeping it a secret that she spoke saiyan, she decided to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"She won't be fed as often as the other prisoners. I'm leaving you in charge of guarding her cell and don't be afraid to use violence. She's not a princess here."

"Yes, sir!"

"And also" Nappa's gaze changed to Minako momentarily, and then back to the younger saiyan, "give her a bucket of water every other day or so, but make sure its freezing cold. Hygiene is important after all!" Nappa gave a great big, bellowing laugh before he left his little saiyan alone with her. He looked at Minako and then back towards where Nappa had walked off to.

"Get used to your new lifestyle, _princess_." he mocked, obviously trying to imitate Nappa's intimidating sarcasm. But he spoke in saiyan so Minako pretended to be deaf. A look on his face formed when he realised her inability to speak his mother tongue.

But silence wasn't a bad thing for the princess as she needed time to think of a plan.

'I need to become familiar with my surroundings. Escaping won't be easy, but I know where they dock their ships now. The only thing I need to do is be fast and quiet.' and then she was struck with a light bulb and an idea formed in her head. Her face turned upwards and she had this younger saiyan in her line of vision. "Yeah…" she said to herself, smiling pridefully. "you'll do just fine."

The energy cuffs on her wrists evaporated so Minako assumed they had some sort of time limit, or maybe because she was already locked up. With her new home, she decided that she needed a new outfit. She didn't have her compact to make new outfits, so she had to make do with what was in her subspace. The simple yellow dress she adorned disappeared and a bright light formed around her. When the light dissipated she was left standing in a pair of combat boots, black spats, and a white sporty vest.

A minimalist new home required a minimalist outfit. The saiyan before her, o the other side of the heavy metal bars, stared in amazement and caution. She put her hands up as if she was surrendering, signalling to him that she wasn't a threat to him. But what a lie that would come to be in the future…

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 **Hey guys! I hope you liked the update! Please don't worry about the abundance of OCs, they won't really be relevant apart from a select few, they're just for a bit of background noise I suppose.**

 **Anyway, I'm afraid you may not see an update for another couple of months due to my exams starting in the middle of May all the way up to the middle of June. I need straight As after all.**

 **In regards to the story, I hope you liked the little abduction scene, and what on Earth would Minako be plotting? And how long can she keep her little multilingual secret for? Who knows?**

 **Anyways, feel free to drop a review, I'm open to criticism. Or even a message, makes no difference to me. I hope you continue to read and follow the plot of the story! I promise there's more to come!**

 **Arcadia out!**


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 - Interrogation

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Spending a whole day on a ship and travelling through a wormhole without having a pee was more than frustrating. Luckily, she'd mastered the art of clenching when she'd been captured at other times, or during royal and social events. But Minako lacked the energy to carry on doing it, and she _really_ needed to pee. With only a bucket in the corner and nothing else, not even loo roll, Minako was very short in the way of options. But she couldn't do it! She was being guarded by a younger saiyan, and a male at that, and couldn't give way to the embarrassment.

'God dammit, Minako, get a grip!' she thought to herself, knowing that she wasn't going to get any better if she just sat there and hoped that all her unwanted liquids would magically leave her body via osmosis or some shit. Or was it diffusion? Or both? She never paid attention in her biology lessons, and she didn't intend to improve her knowledge anyway. It made no difference.

And then the heavy beat of many a few, unsynchronised footsteps began to resonate in her eardrums. 'Somebody's coming'. Minako sat idly by as she waited for the feet to pass by her cell. Surely someone was coming to interrogate her soon? After all, what would be he point in bringing her here for the fun of it? Or was all of this waiting just to fuck with her mind? She didn't know, but her unsatisfied bladder, coupled with the thoughts of what they could do with her made her feel an unsinkable discomfort. Her breathing became more rapid as the steps drew nearer…and nearer…and there they were. Standing before her cell was the brute which so cruelly threw her ass across the room earlier on. Nappa.

"It seems we're becoming quite acquainted with each other, _princess_." the brute cackled at his own joke - a trait in which Minako found to make him look more stupid. Maybe he was all brawn and no brain? Probably like the rest of those monkey bastards. They were all the same after all.

She couldn't muster the concentration to glare at him, as her focus was on her bladder as she prayed to the gods that she didn't piss herself in front of the thick brick shithouse. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he intimidated her. But she had a horrible feeling of foreboding that something much worse was going to happen to her.

"I also see you've had a change of clothes. I see you're dressed for the occasion." he cackled again, this time Minako's blood turned cold when she realised he had the key to open the cell. For some strange reason, she felt as though she'd much rather go in the cell than have to be near the brute again. She saw the bars as sort of protection from him, a barrier of sorts although to him it was nothing. She sat still as he approached her, not even daring to look up at him. She just had to let whatever was to come happen, because right here and right now, she was nothing. Nothing but a means of trying to gain power, and they'd do everything they could to get it. She truly was a prisoner. And she could probably beat the shit out of Nappa if she could gauge his power, but what then? There'd be a bounty on her head. And then she'd be hurt more than she was already going to be. Wherever she went or did on this planet wouldn't get her out of danger at all.

The brute strolled into her cell and, subconsciously, she found her body moving back on its own until she was trapped against the cold, unwelcoming wall. She shook as his massive form approached her and then gave a high pitched yelp when he began to drag her along. Her struggle was pointless and if she used her powers then they would probably kick the shit out of her - his slap was hard enough.

"Listen, blondie. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. And I'd suggest the easy way seeing as what's coming next isn't exactly what I'd call good hospitality." Minako could've froze, but she complied and began to walk along Nappa. In his hands were a pair of steel, cold chains which he then shackled her wrists up with and lead her along like a puppy dog. 'How degrading' she thought to herself.

Minako swore she could hear Nappa mumbling some crap about her not going to know what hit her, but the only thing that the Venusian could concentrate on was how long was she going to be here? What would they do to her? How could she escape? All of these questions were ones that she couldn't answer, but she refused to let the darkness of her thoughts block out her inner light. But Minako couldn't move for a second, stopping dead in her tracks.

The setting had changed: she was in the same place but people crowded the cells instead of most of them being early. Where was she?

No, that wasn't the right question.

Her vision blurry, her hearing muffled, and her presence unnoticed by the multiple saiyan guards brutalising the prisoners, the blonde tried to calm herself down as she hyperventilated. She tried her best to concentrate but everything remained unclear. Screams of women and children and grown men as the saiyan guards relentlessly beat and tortured and raped their war prisoners. Oh yes. It was very clear to her now. There was nothing wrong with her at all.

Glancing to the right as everything became a blur, a young warrioress' legs were being pried apart as blood dripped down her head, recolouring her features. To the left, a defeated warrior screamed like Minako thought that no man ever could as his arm was ripped from his shoulder like a twig from a tree. The unmistakeable crunch of despair turned the Venusian princess' stomach. All of these people had one thing in common.

They were Venusian. The Venusians stood out to Minako. This wasn't her being transported anywhere at all. This was the same place she was. Time had stopped for her and this was all a vision. A vision of the Massacre of Golden Platoon 8 - not a single one of these warriors returned and the young Venusian princess now knew as for why. And how. To her, the screams of these warriors transcended time.

Minako buckled and fell as the brute warrior forcefully pulled her along, wasting no time and having no regard for her wellbeing. The concrete hurt her knees but she didn't care. The waterworks flowed freely from her eyes as the previous images remained burned in her brain. The cries of her people were so great that they had reached her all of these years later. Their souls were begging for her to be cautious. The saiyans wouldn't have mercy on her just because she was a princess; if she wasn't careful then the exact same would happen to her.

The skin over her patella was bleeding and half missing as Minako forced herself back up and stumbled to keep up with Nappa. If she wanted to survive she had to be resilient. If she didn't want to lose herself she had to stay strong. Maybe one day someone would come and rescue her. But it would be a very long way away.

#####

As Vegeta approached the large metal doors, two guards, without him saying a thing, moved aside and pressed a button to open them for him. He gave them a curt nod and made his way inside to his father and his older son, Gumele. Inside these doors was a medium sized room with electronic panels and such as well as a window that faced into a dark grey room.

In the dark grey room sat a young girl with long, blonde hair and a blindfold covering her eyes. So this was Addienna's daughter? The girl wasn't shaking and she wasn't sweating and seemed to show no fear for what was to come, not that she knew. But the heart monitor showed otherwise although the saiyan prince gave her kudos for trying. She put on a very convincing and brave act for a girl of her age given that the position she was in at the moment was far from in her favour.

In the 'dark room' there was an electric chair and a 'mirror' which was actually a window from the perspective of the other side. If she wasn't blindfolded then she's see her own reflection whereas the saiyan royals had a perfect view of the distressed princess.

King Vegeta took matters into his own hands and entered Minako's 'domain'. His son and grandson watched, Gumele looked forward to the torture that was to come for the girl whereas Vegeta somehow knew that their efforts would be fruitless and her suffering would be for naught. Solarians tended not to be the overpowered and brutish warriors that the saiyans were; but if they were one thing, then they were loyal to their land. As princess, Vegeta knew that the girl wouldn't give any information unless she was possibly pushed to her limits. But he imagined that she had never experienced this kind of torture before seeing that she had most likely lived a very pampered life.

"Can you hear me, girl?" the king spoke in his imposing, booming voice. The princess merely nodded her head as the heart rate monitor betrayed her slightly, displaying an increase in fear. Vegeta noticed her swallow a lump in her throat as if to hold back tears. She would be broken here, that was inevitable. His oldest son and his father, but mainly Gumele, loved to see the weak ones break. Vegeta on the other hand believed wasting energy on the weak wasn't the warriors' way as he embarked on his quest to seek powerful opponents. But this girl was far from weak, she was just in a very unfortunate position for her own sake. She had no idea hw brutal the saiyans could be.

Gumele followed his grandfather into the room, and the second his foot crossed into the room he Venusian Princess sensed a truly evil aura. This wasn't the aura of a typical saiyan: brutish, power hungry, battle hungry, and cruel. No. This was very different indeed. This kind of aura was black, impure and sickening. This person, whoever it was, wasn't just a saiyan. They were pure evil. Gumele smiled an evil smile, and somehow Minako could sense him doing it.

"Then you won't mind me asking you a few questions then, will you?" King Vegeta spoke. Although it was a question, there was only one answer she could give.

"I don't particularly have a choice." she murmured. If not for the evil presence in the room she may have come off a bit more sarcastic. But this presence hung over her head and kept her in her place. Like a giant weight.

"Do you miss home, girl?" the king spoke in a belittling tone. She could only muster a weak nod. "Well, tell me what I want to hear and you could be back home, snug in your bed sooner than you think, princess. The plan isn't to keep you forever." Minako revelled in the idea of her own warm sheets, hot food and the amount of respect she received from her subjects. And the love, too. But she had to hold those thoughts in her heart as he knew that she would definitely be here for a long time providing they didn't kill her.

"I may as well get straight to it then, princess." Minako had guessed that the patch on her chest was a heart rate monitor so she knew she couldn't get away with lying. She had to think strategically. And if she had to make one guess it would be that when she is caught out telling a lie she would be hurt, probably by electricity as indicated by the sound of electricity buzzing in the room. She would have to tell half-truths if she wanted to get away. And her acting skills would have to be at their very best. _C'mon girl, you're a performer as well as a princess. I've got this._

"So obviously the Solarian worlds, excluding Earth, are powered by something quite different than technology. You don't use electricity very much so begs the question: what fuel do you use?" This wasn't a bad first question at all. She didn't even have to lie too much for this at all. She would only have to conceal most of the truth. If she could tie in some historical truth with some A grade truth-hiding then she may be able to tell him the what and not the how. It was her only bet in concealing the truth and remaining unhurt. As much as she was used to the harsh shock of electricity thanks to Mako, she wasn't fond nor immune to it.

"As I'm sure you know, our planets are named after the deities that founded the planetary empires." she made sure to speak meekly and weakly so that she could maybe fool them into believing that she was complying out of fear and therefore telling the truth to get home.

"Yes. Continue." Vegeta wasn't buying it. Why would she go from trying to conceal her fear to a whimpering mess like this? She may have his son and his father fooled, but Vegeta wasn't stupid. Vegeta knew what she was trying to achieve but he didn't care enough about the cause to intervene.

"The deities were extremely powerful beings and left behind this power after their deaths in the form of magic that everyone on the worlds can use. But obviously not on Earth." Gumele stepped closer to Venus, giving her shudders and checked the polygraph. Nothing was out of the ordinary. The girl wasn't lying.

"And do tell, _dear_ princess, how this power manifests." Gumele spoke. His voice wasn't daunting at all but it put Minako on edge which he could sense. He smiled at himself, proud of his own fearsome aura. Minako could sense that this man was more than trouble.

Minako would find this considerably more difficult to conceal. She couldn't speak of the planetary crystals or else she'd give it away. But the crystal would never manifest for the saiyans. It was all so pointless. "Every Venusian is born with magic capabilities. It's tied to our souls. The planet and us are connected so as long as we're on Venus we have influence over it." The polygraph showed no major signs of lying but King Vegeta wasn't satisfied. This would mean that there was no possible way he could take their fuel. He rubbed his beard and thought of one more question.

"Okay then, Venus. Tell me: do you have any direct control over this power?" The second he uttered that question Minako knew that she was done for. She couldn't lie. Of course she had control over it. She was the princess for a reason after all.

"…yes…just the same as everyone else-" just then, the words of the 'pastel prince'; "saiyans have a tendency to be brutal".

She was completely unprepared for the stupidly high voltage that ran through her body. Her scream ripped out of her lungs as her body felt like its every fibre was on fire! Of course this would have nearly killed everyone else, but training with Makoto had its perks. Despite that, she had never experienced more pain in her entire life. The voltage ran through her body for the longest 10 seconds she had ever experienced. They weren't lying when they called themselves brutal. Minako had no more voice left to scream as her body lay there, almost smoking, and unconscious. Her bladder was relieved.

Gumele just laughed at her. "God I love it when they scream!" He howled in a fit of hysterics. Vegeta was well accustomed to the disturbing sense of humour of his son but that wasn't to say he approved. The skin of the girl was red and she should she have been a normal human that would have killed her. Vegeta commended her strength and tried to think for the future. If what that woman had told him was true, the war should be over soon…

#####

Pirintu, Trunks' friend and a trusted upper class saiyan serving the royal family was tasked with the responsibility of cleaning up the golden haired princess. As far as she was concerned, the blondie had what was coming to her after living such a sheltered and pampered life in some golden, magical, floaty, bullshit castle.

The warrioress made no time to care for her handling of the princess and just dragged her along the marble floor behind her. It wouldn't kill her. Reaching the washroom in the castle, she filled a tub with water and stripped the princess of her basic garments and took time to feel a slight pang of sympathy looking at how red and raw Minako's skin was. She was hot to touch, and that was just on the outside. The girl would most likely need a hospital before long. Her organs would most likely fail and she would start to die a long and painful death until the king would decide to stick her in a regeneration tank and repeat the process until the girl is brainwashed into telling the truth or brain-dead. Who knows.

Pirintu knew how it worked and continued to wash the girl in the cold water. Maybe it would soothe her skin a little. It was all she could really do for the girl. She was the enemy after all so Pirintu didn't really care for her wellbeing or her fate. "You poor girl. Death would be a mercy to you." she spoke as she lifted the girl out of the water and her clothes out of the washer and redressed her. Before long Minako was back in her cell and unconscious.

#####

About half an hour after she had been dumped back in her cell, she began to regain consciousness. Before she could open her eyes she felt the tears well up and all the pain hit her at once. She felt like she was on fire and she began to twitch, yup, definitely high voltage electrocution. Maybe she should've trained harder with Mako and got more accustomed to electricity, but the girl was just so…shocking? _Mako would have handled that way better than me. I hope she's safe, not that I'm wishing it was her or anything._

Now that she was out of the bounds of the evil guy and the king, Minako began to tap into the Venus crystal in hopes of accelerating her healing process. She still sensed the guard by the door so she couldn't use too much. The downside of her planetary crystal was that it had this somewhat impractical tendency to glow when she used it properly. That ruled out the idea of being discreet.

But even with only tapping into a fraction of its power, Mina's body began to cool down a little and the skin on her knees began to heal. She struggled to move because of the gravity so even being mobile on this shit world was going to be a challenge. She had decided that she needed to do all that she could to conjure an escape. Or at least be able to hide until she could find a way off this stupid rock. _This is where you come in, Ami-chan._

Earth wasn't the only technologically advanced world in the solar system. Mercury excelled as well; the only difference being that the Mercurians combined the use of magic and technology to create something better and more advanced. One of these advanced devices was crafted by a famed Mercurian physicist and every sailor senshi/princess was gifted one for long missions: the M-space, a 'pocket' of sorts which allows the user to store items in another dimension. This was how she could change her outfits and where she was currently hiding her disguise brooch and her transformation brooch. And something that she needed to use…

Checking whether the guard was looking, Minako summoned two small metallic balls, about the size of a brussell sprout each. The two balls hovered on their own. Minako read the instruction manual: 'the scapograph balls are Mercurian…' she skipped past the history of them and to the usage instructions: 'they use omni-directional infrared lasers to map the topography of a structure, either internal or external, and send a detailed three-dimensional holographic map back to the scapo-tablet'. Minako held the tablet in her hand. It was small but emitted holograms when a subject needed to be enlarged. Minako further read the instructions to place these Mercurian babies into incognito mode and ensure that they weren't found or destroyed. She pressed the button and observed them hovering out of the cell as the guard noticed nothing, and went back to being alone.

Minako decided to go to sleep and let the crystal get to work. Sleep took over the princess' mind as she fell into a deep, uncomfortable slumber.

#####

After being told of Minako's kidnapping, her fellow princesses were hell bent on vengeance. Some more than others. Some wanted to spill saiyan blood, others wanted to cry, and one thought logically. And of course, that was Princess Ami.

"We know we can't all invade at once. We'd be kidnapped and killed. Not to mention a sailor teleport that far would completely drain us and we couldn't get back for at least ten hours or defend ourselves. We don't know the geography of the planet or where she's being kept. We'd only get ourselves killed." Although she was hurting, Ami didn't want her fellow senshi to get themselves hurt. Yes, she wanted to save Minako more than anything right now. As the inner team leader, Minako played a big part in fighting nega-forces on top of dealing with saiyans. Her people would miss her as well as the people of other worlds. Minako was a singer, a performer. Everybody knew her voice and face. She was deeply admired and respected throughout the solar system. Excluding Earth.

Communications with Earth had only recently started to improve so they were not yet considered allies. But when Usagi, or Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion made their love public, there was nothing anybody could do to say no. Their love opened a lot of doors to the other words and Earth improving their relationship as the war had to end when the saiyans decided that they wanted to colonise the solar system.

Just because there was no war, didn't mean there was no hate. Tensions still ran high between kingdoms and the fact that Earthlings lived such a different way of life to the rest of the solar system created an even bigger divide. But maybe it was time for Earth to officially become part of the Solarian Union. Maybe the war with the saiyans would end the tension with Earth. Maybe not all effects of war had to be negative; allies could be gained.

Earth was safe from the random invasions of the saiyans due to the order of the saiyan Prince Vegeta. Nobody knew why, and it was rumoured that the Earthlings had shared technology with the saiyans. This, however, wasn't a proven fact. But Ami thought about reaching out to Queen Dimitria of Earth, but there were no express portals to Earth. You couldn't get to Earth without a ship, or a sailor teleport. But even if Ami could speak with Dimitria, what would she say? She would have no idea. And what would she have to offer in return if Dimitria could help out? Who knows.

The abilities of the Earth's Golden Crystal were unknown, only that it was as ancient as the Silver Crystal of the Moon and likely as powerful. But surely the Earthlings had some other way of using it to their own benefit. While the Earthlings were practically safe from the saiyans, they really had no reason to help the rest of the solar system. Ami was annoyed at herself for being fruitless in her thoughts and being unable to conjure a decent plan to rescue Minako.

"Well there has to be something we can do, right, Ami?!" Makoto spoke in a worried tone. She herself was unable to think of anything at all. She was no tactician like Ami, but herself and Haruka were the brawn of the group. She just wished she had the brains to think of something. She immediately spotted her mistake when she saw tears welling up in the eyes of her blue haired friend. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"No it's fine." Ami spoke hurriedly, choking back tears as Mako pulled her into a hug. "I just feel so helpless. I can't think of anything and yet I'm empty." tears ran down her cheeks and her temperature began to drop - something which tended to happen to the icy Mercurians when they were upset. Ami's tears froze solid on her cheeks and Rei came to the rescue.

"You're doing the thing, Ami." she gave her a reassuring hug and used her flames to warm Ami up. Ami gave an appreciative smile. "But we're all helpless. None of us can do anything apart from help our own people now. Something tells me it will take a lot more than a little fear to get under Minako's skin. She's smart and you know it. Don't think of the worst." Ami smiled a little, and the four inner senshi were interrupted by the arrival of Haruka and Michiru.

"Have you had any visions Rei? Because I'm not getting anything whatsoever." Michiru spoke; her voice like a silk cloth.

Rei shook her head, disappointed in herself. The holy flames weren't showing her anything either.

"Then the only thing we can do is wait. I don't feel like Minako is going to die. And neither should you, she's powerful and won't let herself be hurt too much. Have a little faith in the girl." all of the princesses simultaneously looked up at Haruka who had an almost too confident smile on her face. But everyone knew that she was hiding fear as well. She was just trying to keep up hope…

#####

The younger son of Vegeta threw high speed punches and kicks and blocked imaginary attacks in his gravity room. He never ceased trying to sharpen his skills because he hoped to become as powerful as his father and make sure that his bastard older brother couldn't beat him. Trunks had long since ditched the battle armour and trained in his preferred way; a pair of spandex shorts and combat boots and nothing else. The armour was annoying when he was working on speed.

The sweat coated his purple locks so they stuck to his forehead and pointed in every direction. The prince hovered down for a water break and turned off the gravity. The lights came back on and Trunks could see that not a single inch of him wasn't soaked. The slick sweat coated his muscles so that they glistened in the light. No area was left uncovered. In the right lighting, he looked like the sexiest man alive. But he knew that.

He was caught off guard by a knock at the door and looked on the camera screen to see his friend. He pushed a button, the door opened, and in walked Pirintu.

"Why are you always naked?" she rolled her eyes at him when he flashed her his award-winning smile.

"Are you complaining?" he winked and she didn't know whether to laugh in his face or punch him. What was more annoying than a powerful smart-ass was an extremely good-looking powerful smart-ass. What made it so much worse than that was that he knew it.

"You're _insufferable._ " she complained, poking a finger on his chest. "And really sweaty." she did take a moment to admire the definition of his muscles. He'd really been working hard and it showed in both his physique and power. He'd really come a long way. She remembered when they used to train together years ago but now she wouldn't stand a chance against him - she felt a mixture of pride and envy.

"Want a hug?" he asked sarcastically, closing in on her. She grimaced and went to kick him in the balls but he easily dodged. "Even after that tiresome training session I'm still too fast for you." he mocked her but she knew he was only joking. There were no hard feeling between these two and to him, she was the saiyan equivalent of his best friend Goten. Well, he'd never had sex with Goten, but Pirintu was a different matter.

While they were never lovers, when both of them were of saiyan 'puberty' age, there was really only one way to relieve sexual tensions. Especially when saiyans had such high sex drives during their first heat. But their relationship was strictly plutonic from that point onwards and the two hadn't sexually interacted since those years ago. They were fully fledged adults now and the two tried to avoid sex with each other in order to preserve their friendship. That wasn't to say that the leash hadn't slipped sometimes. Everyone had their urges.

Despite the numerous times they'd "accidentally" came into sexual contact with each other, no romantic feelings lingered between the two whatsoever although they did have the utmost respect for one another. A friendship built on mutual respect and trust was uncommon in the saiyan culture, but these two were one of few saiyans who had utmost trust in one another. This gave Gumele many reasons to pick on Pirintu, but she wouldn't have any of it and remained a loyal comrade of Trunks instead. She despised Trunks' brother.

"Don't be gross. You _stink._ " she complained, holding her nose and glaring at him to which he only laughed off her annoyance. This only annoyed her more.

"Okay, sorry." he sighed in defeat of her strong glare. He grabbed the jug of ice cold water next to him and tipped it over himself. It helped slightly but the stench of body odour still lingered. Pirintu responded by opening a window. "I'm insulted."

"Well deodorant would've went a long way!"

"It wasn't like I was expecting visitors! What do you want anyway?" he asked. Pirintu shrugged which told Trunks that it wasn't anything too important. He was relieved because she never came to him while he was training so he was worried it may have been more serious.

"It's just that Venusian Princess. They interrogated her earlier on and she must've been caught out on a lie. She was electrocuted so badly that she was practically smoking. I'm surprised they didn't kill her to be honest, she was so hot she could've been on hire when I had to clean her up." Trunks struggled to understand why Pirintu cared. She was only an enemy princess after all. Her capture was a one-up for Vegeta-sai.

"What's got you concerned?" he asked, slightly compassionately seeing as Pirintu, an upper-class warrior, had seen far worse than a fried body. This shouldn't have affected her. The Venusian girl was admittedly the most beautiful woman Trunks had ever seen, but what else was to be expected from Venusian royalty. Venusians were known for their good looks so the fact that the princess was drop dead gorgeous didn't surprise him whatsoever. Even so, when he first laid eyes on her he was surprised that someone could be that beautiful but he wasn't going to fall for her charm. He had planted the idea in his head that she was able to make people attracted to her for her own benefit. It was the only explanation…wasn't it? After all, he had protected her on that damned ship in front of all of his guards and soldiers. It was embarrassing to say the least. Why should he have cared that she was going to be stomped on? Her torture on the planet was going to be far worse anyway. So he had deduced that she had put him under a spell or some shit when he caught her. Either that, or the worst case scenario…

"Well… it's just that the way I heard your brother laughing about the amount of pain she was in kind of made me sick. She didn't stand a chance and was trying to endure it really well, which she did seeing as the voltage was enough to kill the biggest saiyans. She did well to survive it and yet he laughed. I'm not saying I feel sorry for the girl but your brother is really something else." Trunks could only agree with that. Gumele had more than a few screws loose in his head. He had a massive thirst for blood and violence and was probably one of the most bloodthirsty and violent saiyans on the planet. Right up there with the other psychopaths.

"I'm not surprised to be honest. He disgusts me. As for the girl I'm not really bothered what happens to her. Just a shame to ruin such a pretty face." he shrugged it off like it was nothing. Like he was used to it. Which he really was, but Pirintu couldn't shake the feeling that something really bad was going to happen. And Gumele was going to be behind. Every day he grew more psychotic and twisted. And she was beginning to wonder how much of an impact this psychotic nature, combined with his monstrous strength, would have. Trunks may be a powerful saiyan, but there was always a gap that Trunks couldn't close between his brother and himself. Pirintu didn't dare to ask, but she wondered if the reason Trunks pushed himself so hard was to make sure that his brother couldn't totally eclipse him in strength because who knows what Gumele would be tempted to do to his 'dear' little brother.

#####

With slightly less red skin and a cooler body temperature, Minako was well on the track to recovery. A few more hours and she should be nearly mended. If she had to estimate, she'd say it had been about 25 hours. She'd been asleep for a long time and the first thing that came into her mind was how pink she looked. It was a drastic improvement from the day before. But she still wasn't back to her beautiful complexion! Ugh, the pain still resonated within her body and she was still twitching slightly. She'd been drifting in and out of consciousness but was somewhat relieved to notice that the saiyans had been lenient enough to leave her a 2L bottle of water to drink. Her raspy voice was any indication that she needed a voice when she croaked "Ouch." to herself. The cap was off the bottle as soon as she grabbed it and then she gulped more than half of it in astoundingly short time.

She looked up to see a guard peering around and looking directly in her cell. He was staring at her. He looked to be no older than around 21 years old and adorned a typical saiyan battle suit. She couldn't muster any words to talk. Thanks to yesterday's display it was no secret to anybody that she was fluent in saiya-jin so she couldn't use that to her advantage anymore. Damn.

But what she really needed was an opportunity to get out and explore and look at how the scapographs had mapped out the dungeons. And seeing as there was only one guard on duty that she could sense near her, she could use this to her advantage. She just had to display some of that womanly charm that came with her age. She was, after al, a descendant of Aphrodite. While her powers of bewitchment hadn't yet matured fully, she could still use her charm to her advantage. She was _excellent_ at putting on facades. Putting her water bottle down after her long drink, she meekly looked up and made direct eye contact with the young saiyan. "Um…hi…" she spoke quietly and made sure that her voice was a little bit shaky. Her facial expression read that she was vulnerable, like a nervous dear in headlights. She made herself look weak.

The young saiyan seemed to be caught off guard and looked as if he was going to reciprocate her greeting to only catch himself and remind himself of his permission. "Be quiet!" he exclaimed but she could hear the reluctance in his voice. That didn't quite go to plan but she sure as fucking hell wasn't finished.

She furrowed her brows in sadness and retreated, leaning backwards slightly and only peeking at the saiyan from he corner of her eye. "I…I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to annoy you." her voice sounded genuinely hurt and upset which took the young saiyan by surprise. The prisoners he normally dealt with were large and aggressive. This girl was timid and beautiful and really hadn't done anything to deserve to be in prison. He felt a pang of guilt for his words and quickly tried to think of what to say.

"Oh, sorry, I just didn't realise you'd be so… not aggressive." he said, his voice screamed that he was guilty and he scratched the back of his head in awkwardness.

Minako slowly rose onto her knees and looked at the saiyan with a small smile on her face. She didn't let the weak façade go away and made sure she didn't look too eager.

"Oh…it's okay I get it's your job." she turned to face him fully and studied his face. He was clean shaven and fresh faced but really muscular and stood at about 5'11", only 5 inches taller than herself. She observed him relax his shoulders and inwardly congratulated herself on her success. If she could get close enough to him unsuspiciously she could use magic on him. She only needed half an hour to have a wonder around.

"The prisoners I normally deal with are usually strong and aggressive so I have to be more assertive. You don't seem like that though. You're too innocent to be in a place like this." she gave a small chuckle but inwardly laughed at him mistaking her strength. He'd be surprised if they ever fought.

"Right you are." she smiled weakly and then her expression fell just a little bit. Enough for him to notice.

"So you're the Venusian Princess, right? This isn't the place for you."

"I agree. Sorry for being so forward. I just really hate being alone…" she twirled a small strand of her hair around her index finger and placed her locks over one shoulder. She switched her line of vision between the saiyan and her hair, her expression seemed genuinely sad.

The saiyan, who had fell for her charm, seemed sad for her and tried to offer support. "Well, I can't vouch for the other guards, but I wouldn't mind talking to you if it makes you feel better. I'm the only one on duty for another 2 hours until the shift change." Brilliant! His guard was down around her. She was lucky he was so young and gullible.

Minako stood up in fake excitement and grinned. She then made eye contact with the saiyan and nervously looked down at her feet. "Sorry. I didn't mean to be so enthusiastic…but it made me really happy to hear that!" she put the utmost enthusiasm into her performance and she looked up to see him smiling and chuckling.

"Well you hate being alone." Minako stood with her arms behind her back and hunched shoulders with a nervous blush and stared down to her left. She knew full well, without even looking, that he was checking her out.

While not in the most flattering clothing, she adorned a simple white vest and short spats which showed some cleavage and the beautiful shape of her legs. She had all the right curves in all the right places and she was going to use it to her advantage. Her long blonde hair was draped over one shoulder which she continually fiddled with.

She took a few steps and was at the bars. She nervously held her hand out to the saiyan.

"You know I'm the Princess of Venus, but you can call me Vee." she looked up at the saiyan and gave a gentle but shy smile. He blushed and could only admire how beautiful and innocent she was which really whet his appetite and fuelled his sexual desires. This beautiful girl made his mouth water and he was almost certain he could make her his if he played his cards right. She was only a prisoner, and a weak one at that. How hard could it be. As long as he wasn't caught he shouldn't get into trouble. When King Vegeta had gotten everything he needed from her, the young saiyan would be more than able to satisfy his sexual urges on the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. Things were really going his way. He licked his bottom lip which didn't go unnoticed by the newly dubbed 'Vee'.

"Nice to meet you Vee, I'm Tato." He took her hand with his and then felt a jolt of calmness run through his body. He was so relaxed and he couldn't think straight. His train of thought was gone, and he felt like he needed her to think for him.

"Say, Tato…you wouldn't mind opening this cell, would you? I'd really appreciate it if you did." She flicked her hair back and let Tato take in her beauty. Without being able to differentiate right from wrong, and only doing what she told him, he took the keys from his pocket and unlocked the cell. He opened it for her and she strolled out.

 _He shouldn't be able to know what he's doing for around thirty minutes. Now's my chance._

Summoning the scapo-tablet she gave a command to the two scapographs mapping the castle to transmit the data back to her. On the tablet was a detailed 3D map of the whole castle and on it she found the dungeon. She was very much underground. She ordered the scapographs to return and then enlarged the dungeon map and decided to take herself on a little adventure…

"29 minutes left. Let's see what I can do…"

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 **Hey guys! I'm so happy I finally finished this chapter and my exam season is over! Yay!**

 **I hope you liked this chapter even though it was a little grim but trust me the next chapter will be much more interesting.**

 **If you're confused about anything hen don't be afraid to review or PM me and I'm open to suggestions and constructive criticism.**

 **On another note I now have so much free time so that means chapters will be uploaded more frequently. I'll try and get the next one up within two weeks.**

 **Thank you for your reviews everybody and I hope you continue to read Compromise.**

 **Goodbye for now and I'll see you in the next chapter!**


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 - Meaningful Encounters

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After turning the corner, she glanced back to notice Tato in the exact position she had left him in. He wasn't mindless but he was extremely confused and his morality depended entirely upon her. He wouldn't regain his senses for about half an hour.

The first rule of bewitchment is that the target has to be sexually attracted to the caster which Tato made more obvious than he intended when she caught him checking her out and licking his lips.

The second rule is that the target cannot be somebody who the caster has strong feelings towards. The best targets were strangers.

The third rule is that the target cannot be suspicious of being put under a spell. Tato had met all three of these criteria and Minako was glad that she had found somebody so gullible to try out her new abilities. With a greater age come more abilities. Minako had been inspired by her mother and had practised relentlessly to be just like her. Unfortunately, Minako lacked experience but had great initiative. Her power may not be as effective as her mother's, but something's better than nothing, right?

She looked at the scapo-tablet and remembered to pinpoint where her own cell was so that she could return in plenty time. Minako would have ran to make the journey quicker but she didn't want to risk running into any guards. Besides that, the gravity was more than taking its toll on her body. She felt so heavy and weak. So she pulled out her emergency kit from her M-space and injected herself with a shot of adrenaline. She wasn't a lover of injections, but this was a time of emergency.

She continued walking and eventually grew tired of how drab the place looked. This place was just so dull and dismal. Not that she expected any better from a dungeon, but as a princess she shouldn't be held in a place like this. No class whatsoever, ugh.

Even so, she continued and even quickened her pace as she approached a door with a stair case on the other side. But she heard voices.

"God, that Venusian woman needs to just keel over and die already. I'm getting sick of staring at her miserable face. She's no fun." were they talking about her? But Minako had to hide and she had to do it now. Seeing nowhere to hide, she used her love chains to get above the door frame and wait for them to walk out. Minako held her breath and shuddered as she heard the footsteps grow closer and closer until the giant metal thing was flung open and she witnessed two saiyan men walk straight beneath her.

Being quick, she swung from her chain and through the door before it could close and then found herself at the stair case. There were no ascending stairs so Minako suspected that she was on the highest level of the prison. Was there a specific reason she was being kept on the top floor? Probably because they would want to see her regularly so it would be easier to access her. That made sense.

Minako continued down the stairs and decided to avoid the very bottom…for now. She had a feeling that was where they'd keep the worst of the prisoners but maybe it would be worth investigating at a later date.

As she descended two floors, something in her heart tugged, it was as if something was trying to pull her towards them. Someone crying or in need of love. Someone pure.

Minako's thoughts lingered on the words of the other guards earlier on. What Venusian were they on about? Surely they hadn't been on about her? She wasn't miserable yet, she was laying the groundwork for her great escape at some point. It wasn't as if she had a plan though. At this early stage, she was simply gathering intel.

Minako's heart, or rather her sixth sense, guided her through the door two floors down and she opened it, trying to listen for any voices on the other side. Being as careful as possible, Minako hesitantly slipped through, cautiously looking in all directions. The coast was clear!

Being careful not to make any noise, Minako followed her intuition and headed to where she thought the source of her strange feeling was located. Every step felt like she was plunging herself into ore danger as she strayed from her cell. She'd heard many stories of how saiyans punished people and they'd already subjected her to electro-torture. _Saiyans have a tendency to be brutal._ 'Yeah, you don't say' she thought to herself. That pastel prick was right about that at least.

Most of the cells were empty, but as she ventured further she made sure there were no guards, and no prisoners in the cells she was passing by before she made her moves. And then she was there. An ordinary cell with one prisoner. Isolated from others. A woman, a beautiful, ginger-headed woman with muddy brown eyes which were bloodshot from either, what Minako presumed, crying or exhaustion or both. Minako couldn't stop staring, and neither could the woman who was curled up in a ball with her head atop her knee. She was peeking as if she was some sort of nervous child, afraid to be seen. She irradiated fear and depression, loneliness and pain, loss and emptiness. This woman…where could Minako place her? And then something clicked?

This woman had appeared in her vision…one of the warrioresses of Venus' Golden Platoon 8. The woman began to unravel herself, her hands a trembling mess and tears seemed to wetten her dry eyes. She began to stand and make her way to Minako as she could only freeze and become uneasy.

"Q…" the woman tried to speak, a broken whisper being forced out of her throat. "Queen Addienna… Addienna…" As soon as her mother's name left the woman's lips, her muddy eyes turned to soil and her spirit seemed to be lifted just that little bit more.

Minako was at a loss for words. This woman had mistaken her for her mother. This woman was the one who Minako had sensed and decided to seek. Minako felt that unmistakable warmth on her forehead as the symbol of her home world appeared. This action was mirrored by the woman. No wonder she recognised her as Venusian royalty (albeit the wrong one), this woman was definitely Venusian.

Minako felt a few things; relieved to find someone from her home, and pity for the state of the woman in front of her. She was skin and bones and looked sickly; her skin had lost its colour and was devoid of any life. She looked like she would die any second.

"Sorry, but I'm her daughter, Princess Minako." came her reply, she shook while she said it, swallowing a lump in her throat and trying to hold back tears. But the woman's face had lit up a little, a small smile daring to come out from hiding. A glint presented itself in her eyes as she sat up even more and crawled towards the bars of her cell. Overlooking her joy, Minako could only think that this was a pitiful display. It broke her heart to see one of her own like this. Her hatred for the saiyans worsened more than when they tortured her and humiliated her. But she didn't scowl; she only looked at the woman with sympathy as she crawled in her direction. Minako knelt down on the ground to come to her level.

"Oh, Princess Minako!" she rejoiced in a loud whisper. "The beautiful daughter of the Queen! What a privilege to meet you." her voice was weak and strained. Minako cracked a small smile. She had found somebody who could become a friend and an ally. There wasn't much hope, but something was better than nothing.

"I'm glad to meet you. Can I ask what your name is, and how you came to be here?"

The woman seemed eager to oblige and began to talk immediately. It was as if she was desperate for conversation which only lead Minako to wonder how long this woman had been a prisoner.

"My name is Kia. I was the leader of the elite Golden Platoon 8. We were the best of the best, trained spies and warriors entrusted by the queen to carry out a mission on Vegeta-sai. But it went horribly wrong. And to cut the story short, I'm the only one who survived. They slaughtered my team and I could only watch. I've been here ever since." Minako could only gawk in shock. She wasn't surprised, but to hear the tale from first-hand experience made her vision seem so much more real and apparent.

"I'm sorry for your losses." was the only thing the princess could bring herself to say, her eyes threatening tears.

The woman reached through the bars of the cage and held Minako's hand in hers, cupping it. "You've no idea how good it feels to know the touch of a friendly character. It's been 30 years since I've known that. Since I've been outside. And for you to be my young princess too! Addienna's beauty really did pass onto you, young one." the lady said, a tearful smile forming on her malnourished face.

Minako had so many questions to ask, but then realised her time limit, she had 20 minutes left until the effect wore off on gullible Tato.

"Kia, I must ask you to keep this encounter secret." the woman nodded almost immediately. Within less than 5 minutes the princess had already earned the loyalty of another subject as she proudly reminisced on Venusians' loyalty to one another. Shifting her gaze, Minako couldn't avert her eyes from the woman's stump leg. "I can really tell they didn't hold back on you, did they?" a depressed sigh escaped her mouth. "But, I'm mapping out the palace and looking for a way out. It'll take a while, but if I play my cards right I hope to escape. Care to join me when I find the chance?" almost as soon as the words left her mouth, tears were flooding out of Kia's eyes.

"Young princess, you must be careful. They're brutal, oh so brutal! Don't take risks at all here. They won't be lenient with you just because you're beautiful."  
Minako took these words seriously as she processed the word 'brutal'. Not only had that pastel prick described his own kind as brutal, but now this lady too. These constant reminders of saiyan nature had burned a place in her memory. She couldn't afford to be reckless, she just had to be intelligent. "But… I'd be very lucky to even live that long. I'm afraid I don't have much time." the woman said, her smile of hope disappearing. Lifting up her cloak, Minako took a second glance at Kia's leg to see the end of the stump turning black. Obviously infected, Minako wanted to throw up at the sight of it. With a hand to her mouth, she gasped in pity and shock.

"I'm sorry…" tears escaped her eyes. "But, I promise I'll be back to see you again. I'm on a time limit, I've escaped but I have to go back to my cell now." her voice almost breaking with the tears.

"Of course, young princess… but please, don't forget me." the woman's pleading eyes etched themselves into Minako's head. There was no way in hell she would forget this encounter.

#####

Hours later, the princess was sat in her cell, a different guard was outside. There was no way she was getting out with this guy though. He was a giant, ugly bastard who didn't give two shits about talking to her, only snapping at her when she tried to initiate conversation. Minako contemplated her encounter with Kia. If only she could find a way to heal Kia the way Usagi healed people. The Venus crystal had a long way to go before it could display the same amount of power as the silver crystal. Granted, the silver crystal was much older and had many more users than her own senshi crystal, but she really wished that she could use its powers to heal.

#####

The lavender haired prince moped around in his bedroom. After so long, Vegeta-sai became a very uninteresting and miserable place to stay. It lacked a lot of greenery and most of the inhabitants were miserable bastards with no intentions of being chatty. When Trunks wasn't on a mission, he was either training, engineering, or spending time with Pirintu. Unfortunately for him, she'd been sent on a mission for a few days so the only things he had to keep him company were blue prints, a tech room, and a gravity chamber. But right now, he'd been given orders to retrieve the Venusian Princess and take her to be interrogated again. This girl was really prolonging her stay here much longer than necessary. The only thing she needed to tell was the truth and then she could leave.

Trunks couldn't help but be curious about the loyalty she displayed for her planet. If he was in her situation, he really couldn't care less about Vegeta-sai and wouldn't have too many qualms if the planet got destroyed. Her subjects were probably fiercely admiring of her whereas the saiyans couldn't seem to wrap their heads around a mongrel, half-breed prince such as himself. Not that their opinion bothered him in the slightest. He only cared about finishing his duties and being able to return to Earth for the rest of the year.

Entering the sub levels, Trunks stepped out of the elevator and got ready to speak to the guarding saiyan. Which one was guarding her this time? Tato was it? He was young, the same age as himself at 22 and yet they had never ha a real conversation. Te young saiyan guard didn't respect Trunks at all, and Trunks felt the same. There really was no love lost when Trunks approached the princess' cell and told Tato he could go. The younger saiyan shot Trunks an empty look, and walked straight past him without a response. One down, one to go.

Looking through the bars, Trunks noticed the blonde- haired girl staring at him. If looks could kill…

Sighing, Trunks spoke out. "I'm the third prince of Vegeta-sai, Princess Venus. I've to take you for your interrogation." Looking at how well she had healed in the space of 2 days, the young prince found himself looking at, and almost admiring, how smooth her skin appeared. Even in the dark, he could tell that it would be soft to touch, not that he didn't already know this from their previous encounter.

Minako refused to budge, this was the bastard who had taken her from her home and had helped lead the onslaught of her royal guard. She didn't want to talk to him at all. Even so, she was still somewhat thankful of him saving her from the wrath of ugly Nappa, at least _this_ saiyan was something pleasant to look at. His colourings had initially confused the princess, but after manipulating Tato into talking to her, she'd found out that his name was 'Trunks', he was a 'filthy mongrel', and he was largely despised by the majority of his people. She really couldn't relate as the people of Venus all loved her. But she refused to pity a disgusting saiyan.

After a few seconds without budging, Trunks decided that he'd have to drag her out of the cell. Opening the cell, he stepped inside and toward her, but suspiciously her attitude changed from hateful, to timid. He smirked, not so tough now, huh? For every step he took towards her, she crawled backwards. Her eyes emanated fear with every step he took closer to her until she was against the wall with him standing over her. "Get up." he ordered, imperatively. But she still wouldn't budge, her expression returning to hateful just like when he captured her. Her tangled hair and angry face didn't change the fact that she was so obviously beautiful. But he wasn't going to be kind and gentle with her because she was stunning. Instead, he gripped her arm and yanked her up as she grimaced and flinched. Almost as soon as he'd forced her onto her feet did he feel a little bit guilty. What was with that every time he was around her? But he shrugged it off the best he could, this woman couldn't be trusted, and he had a slight suspicion that his reasons for protecting her on the ship, and allowing her to surrender unharmed on Venus had something to do with her abilities. He was very suspicious of this girl. Oh so suspicious.

Minako didn't get it. _He's obviously attracted to me, he makes it so obvious! And I don't really hate this guy personally, so what's the issue?_ she thought to herself, her brows showed a hint of frustration and soon enough her angry expression took hold. Oops, there went her act. _Dammit._

"Don't make this hard, and quit that act. You're far from shy, _princess._ " he spoke. Minako couldn't stand that sarcastic, derogatory tone. It was like he was looking down on her, as if he was a better person than he was. _He's a saiyan. He's a worthless piece of shit._ Unbeknownst to the frustrated and irate princess, her expression matched her thoughts as she looked at him with a mix of disgust and outrage. How the hell did he see through her so quickly? Maybe he's been suspicious the whole time? Maybe he somehow sensed she was trying to have an influence over him. _Why can't I bewitch this bastard._

"B-but I'm no-" she meekly began, trying to sink back into her timid act.

"That's enough!" he exclaimed, ragging her forward by her arm. This only enraged the princess; how dare a disgusting saiyan talk own to her like that? She hadn't done anything to deserve it. A storm was building inside her. And then she couldn't control it.

*smack*

A red hand-print began to form on Trunks' face as he met her furious sapphires. Her expression soon changed to regret as his grip on her arm tightened significantly and the pain was evident on her face. But once again her face changed to anger as the hand in his grip began to glow faintly and his cheek was hit with a small, laser-like energy blast which forced him to move his head to avoid further damage. She'd drew blood, and that was one thing nobody should ever do to a saiyan if they wanted to remain in one piece. But he wasn't as angry as he normally would be. But why not? He didn't understand it. It wasn't like he hadn't lashed at other hot chicks before who he was fighting. Her gender and attractiveness shouldn't have had an impact on his anger levels, but for some reason he was only annoyed at the wound and not furious like he normally would be.

Even so, her attempts to get him off of her arm did nothing, and although her mini beam had wounded him, he still didn't budge. It was like a repeat of the castle incident back home. She was trapped by him at such close range, and her attacks did nothing. But the young princess wasn't done yet.

As quickly and smoothly as she could, she edged close enough to him to bring her knee close enough to his manhood that he had no choice but to step back if he wanted to avoid such a low blow, and with him stepping back, she ceased her feigned attack on his balls and placed her free hand on top of the one that was about to break her arm and put as much energy onto it as possible, burning the 'filthy mongrel' in the process.

He was forced to let go of her and she could only smirk in triumph. But she didn't have the time to be proud of herself: she knew that this prince had been tasked with taking her to another terrible interrogation and she knew she'd be tortured. She had to run away. She didn't know where to, but if she could find a hiding spot, just for two minutes, she could consult her scapograph and get to temporary safety.

Minako stepped back from the prince and immediately began charging her trump card which could just succeed in getting her out of here. _Kia, I might just get us out of here quicker than expected._ The princess was hopeful and maybe a little too optimistic, but she didn't care. This was something, this was probably the closest she'd get and now there was no turning back.

"Venus Love Me Chain!" Trunks caught the heart-linked energy chain that was headed directly for him and smirked at the princess. He didn't expect her to return his smile as her chain extended even still and coiled itself around his upper half. He was half immobile and Minako knew this was where she had to run like her life depended on it- most likely because it did.

She ran, the gravity taking its toll, as fast as she could past the struggling prince. Because she hadn't transformed into her eternal form, Minako knew the chain wouldn't hold for too long. But what she didn't see when she ran past the prince was that for a split second, a golden aura surrounded him, his hair turned yellow, and his eyes turned turquoise. And with one stretch, her chain was destroyed, and so were her hopes of escape.

Before she could fully turn her head to witness what had happened, the young prince tackled her to the ground and forced her hands above her head. It felt like a rock was on top of her pelvis, but it was just him and his brute-ish body. She was done for. The boiling rage in her eyes was aimed not only at the prince, but at her own failure for blowing her only chance of escape. _Fuck._

Trunks licked the blood that was dripping down his face from her initial beam and then didn't hesitate to look her directly in the eyes. He didn't get the intended fearful look back from her though. It was as if she refused to acknowledge the position that she was in, as if she didn't care that she was nothing here. She still held the arrogant air of a princess in her palace, and that would most definitely be problematic here on Vegeta-sai if she didn't play her cards right.

Trunks couldn't bring himself to land a blow on her though, or knock her out. He couldn't even shout. "You're going about this all wrong if you want to live long enough to leave, _princess_."

Minako couldn't bare to look at his stupid little not-so-ugly face. Their little scuffle had broken his hair tie, resulting in a few lavender strands drooping close to her face. She caught the scent of strawberry shampoo. The same flavour that she used. This wasn't the time to laugh, but she couldn't help but smirk. How ironic. _Your hair looks like lavender, but smells like strawberries._ [A/N: does anybody get the reference? TFS? No? Never mind…]

Minako didn't have the energy to struggle right now. She just cocked her head to the side and sighed in defeat. "Just take me and get it over with." her arms untensed. But Trunks blushed unintentionally. He didn't usually have a dirty mind, but for some reason in this girl's presence, refraining from carnal and indecent thoughts was out of the question. 'Just take me…' _Cut it out, Trunks._ Ugh, this woman…was she some sort of sexual sorceress? Is that why he didn't want to get off of her right now? Why such hungry, delicious thoughts ran their course in his head. This woman…

And then he forced himself to snap out of it. She'd been defeated, and now he only needed to take her to his grandfather and brother. He felt like being talkative. Trunks didn't want to make this more awkward than it was going to be. "Y'know, I did tell you that saiyans have a tendency to be brutal. Or something like that anyway." he said. His voice, although naturally rough, was slightly softer as noted by Minako. She observed the prince remove himself from her and stand up, and was then baffled when he offered her his hand. She decided she didn't want to piss this guy off anymore than she already had. He could beat her at any moment. She took his hand and let him hoist her up.

She had to force herself to thank him. It came out as almost a whisper.

"Hold out your wrists." he ordered, and she dared not to disobey him. He placed his big, hot hands around her wrists and she was surprised at how gently he did this in contrast to his previous grip. When he removed his hands, a pair of golden cuffs bound her wrists together. Trunks had her walk beside him so he could keep an eye on her. He decided to make small talk, after all, this walk would be around 10 minutes.

"I have to commend you on that stunt you pulled. If it had been any of the guards then you'd have succeeded." he side-eyed her and smirked when he caught her dismayed expression. He did admit that she was in a shitty position and hadn't done anything to deserve to be here. Saiyans were greedy, always wanting more, and the Solarians were the ones currently paying the price.

"Just my luck they send a strong one, huh." she sighed. All anger in her voice had disappeared. She just sounded fed up. Trunks noticed her trying to fix her hair but the attempt was futile and she knew it.

"Don't lash out like that, though. Remember what I said. Others aren't as laid back about this crap than I am." if truth be told, Trunks wasn't a believer in saiyan philosophy. He knew that this girl didn't deserve this, but he had to do his job as prince. The worst part of being on this damned world was that he always had to push down his guilt and feelings. He hated this place with a passion.

"You can forget it if you want me to say thank you." she blurted out. But then she gave it some thought. "But I guess I could've been landed with a less lenient saiyan." Trunks figured that was her way of showing some sort of appreciation. Maybe this was her accepting her place here on Vegeta-sai. From the second she said the word 'saiyan' he caught her looking at his hair. "An oddly coloured saiyan." _For Aphrodite's sake, Minako! Watch your tongue._

She expected him to get angry, but he only let out a small, amused laugh. "I'm not the only one here that stands out." he retorted, it came out surprisingly light-hearted. The princess was slightly surprised, but she wasn't going to dismay the only half-kind words she was going to get in a while.

"That might be true, but I'm a foreigner so I have an excuse." she smirked.

"So am I, princess. But I'm sure its not too hard to tell. In any case, your acting is pretty spot on. You nearly had me fooled." he turned to look directly at her, and he had to admit she looked more approachable when she wasn't giving him the death glare. Her lips nearly smiled in appreciation, but then she must have remembered who was giving her the compliment.

"If only my emotions weren't so readable. You'd have fallen for it."

"I would have." he agreed, unsure of what to say next.

"So, what are they gonna do to torture me this time?" she said it so bluntly. As if she was prepared. But of course, who was really prepared for torture? Trunks respected this girl's refusal to show any fear. Maybe she wasn't just a pretty little princess. But she'd proved that by attacking him earlier. She was fairly powerful so she obviously didn't just sit around on her backside all day letting people run around after her. The girl clearly had acting experience.

"Honestly, I really don't know. But maybe you could put those acting skills to good use. My brother's been known to use fire, blades, electricity and all the nasty shit. Maybe your tolerance is low…" he suggested. Trunks didn't know why he just gave the girl advice on how to get out of the torture chamber prematurely. Minako couldn't really tell either. She wasn't trying to bewitch him, she knew that wouldn't work. Maybe he was just a nice guy? But that was so out of character for a saiyan. Every other saiyan she'd met had had excessively violent tendencies. She'd never met a nice saiyan.

"I don't know why you're trying to help me. You're the one who brought me here in the first place." Trunks was tempted to glare at her, but she was dead right. He had no retort for that. Yes, he was the one who had found her and it was indirectly his fault that she was here in the first place. He didn't know why he was being nice to her at all. "I'm not saying that I'm ungrateful for the advice though. Thanks I guess." her voice sounded a little strained and the way she was walking suggested fatigue. Was the gravity really too much for her?

Minako could feel her body beginning to succumb to the gravity again. She'd done enough physical activity today. Climbing those stairs to get back from her conversation with Kia had really done her in. And then her scrap with the pastel prick. And now more stairs.

"Gravity too much for you?" she was surprised to hear him air a concern. Was it really that obvious?

"No, I'm fine." she said, nearly panting. _Keep your breath, Minako._

"You're obviously lying. You've slowed down significantly since we started walking." Minako couldn't argue that point. She hadn't even noticed how much she'd slowed down. And now she was halfway up one flight of stairs out of Aphrodite knows how many.

"I guess I do feel a bit heavy now that you mention it…" she trailed off. As if on queue, her body collapsed under its own weight and she just couldn't find the strength to get back up. _Definitely did too much today._

Trunks witnessed the girl panting and struggling to stand. His initial thought that she was pulling some sort of prank on him and she'd jump back up to attack him again. But he knew a worn out and fatigued person when he saw one; after all, he'd battled his fair share of exhausting fights and witnessed a shit load of exhausted slaves on Vegeta-sai and other worlds.

Without a second thought, Trunks scooped the blondie into his arms and slung her over the shoulder, very nearly making the mistake of carrying her bridal style.

"Mmm." came her muffled response and causing the saiyan to unknowingly blush. _Okay Trunks. Lets just get rid of her._

 **Hey guys, I hope you liked this chapter! I'm so sorry for the ate update, things haven't gone as planned recently. I've just got back into the swing of things recently so hopefully I'll update more regularly. Please feel free to review, constructive criticism is also welcomed warmly. Peace!**


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter six - Perspective**

With the Venusian immobile and still a short while to go until they arrived at the dark room, Trunks could only sigh at his bad luck. Trust it to be him who had to have these awkward encounters with this woman. If it had been any other saiyan who had the strength then there was no way in hell she'd have been brought out of there without a small beating.

He knew he wasn't the type to beat a woman while she was down, or a man for that matter. But thinking back on it, she had burned his arm, cut his face, and tried to restrain him with some sort of golden glowing weapon. For a woman of pure, untainted beauty, she was very reminiscent of a hell cat. He hadn't expected that at all, and when a saiyan gets taken by surprise, they get angry. And yet he still couldn't muster any rage. Frustration? Absolutely. But aimed at himself rather than her for being 'unable' to punish her. Even so, his brother and grandfather would do that now anyway.

He heard her quietly groaning as she was slumped over his shoulder. She was muttering something in what he assumed to be her mother tongue because he couldn't understand a word of it. "What are you whining about?" he pondered. It wasn't like she had anything to be positive about and he was curious to hear what she had to say.

"I'm rejoicing over this wonderful situation that I've found myself in and I'm showing gratitude to the absolute gentleman of a saiyan who's so gracefully carrying me." he didn't have a view of her face, but he could picture her sarcastic expression perfectly.

"My pleasure, princess." she couldn't see his face, but it was as if she could hear the smirk on his stupid little face. What an asshole. She could really do with a massage about now.

"What questions do you think they'll ask this time then, asshole." she didn't even realise that she'd said 'asshole' out loud until she felt him stop slightly. "…didn't mean to say that out loud." she said frantically. This guy was already annoyed with her and now she'd made it worse. She braced herself as she expected him to throw her off of his shoulder, but it didn't come. Instead, he gave a light hearted chuckle.

"You have some giant, ape balls for a girl, y'know." he informed her. She sighed in relief, briefly remembering her mother apprehending her for that bad habit. Her body relaxed slightly which certainly didn't go unnoticed by Trunks.

So she was scared of him? What did she fear he might do to her? At least she wasn't completely arrogant and ignorant to her situation. "I do _not_ have balls!" she exclaimed, somewhat offended and confused. Was this an insult or what?

Trunks laughed a little again, this girl was somewhat amusing, too. "It's an expression!" he exclaimed. "It means that you're brave."

Oh, so it was the vulgar saiyan equivalent of 'you have guts'. How embarrassing. In a normal situation, Minako would have chuckled at her mistake but as time passed she knew she was getting closer to another session of pain. She felt herself slip slightly and couldn't help but grip his waist a little. At just that little amount of contact, she felt a hardness like rock. The muscle of this man was extraordinary and it was obvious that he must have trained like hell to get this far. She could only imagine how refined of a fighter he must be to have achieved this.

Feeling the pressure her hand exerted on his waist he knew she must be slipping. She held her hand there, probably to maintain stability but he couldn't stop thinking about it. It was a lingering thought. What is she doing? Why is she so comfortable touching me like this? Is she trying to bewitch me? And other questions ran through his mind, but he kept silent one again. They were nearly there after all.

It was as if she could sense it. Getting closer and closer. Her breathing began to quicken and her heart began to race. And when the pastel prick stopped to open a door she started to tremble. Her grip on him tightened and she wanted to hold on for dear life. Tears formed.

How could her body change like this in a matter of seconds? All at once? It was because she knew what was coming. Fear. Hatred. Anger. Desperation. They all coursed through her like bullets.

Trunks once again felt guilt return to his body as he felt her start to shake and something warm and wet and on his lower back. She'd composed herself well before, but maybe it all caught up to her. But he didn't have a choice and he opened the door to his father, grandfather, and his bastard brother.

"Take her through." King Vegeta ordered.

Minako nearly lost her whole composure as she felt her body heat up and the dread sink in. She closed her eyes as she was carried past the saiyans and yet she could still feel their eyes on her. She squeezed them shut as tight as possible and tried to breathe.

Trunks opened another door and closed it behind him. He set her down onto her feet and couldn't look her in the eyes. She reeked of fear. Before he took her through to the dark room, he moved a strand of her silky hair behind her ear and whispered: "Remember what I told you." she shuddered at the warmth of his breath but somehow was able to compose herself just a little bit. He removed her cuffs and opened another door. He was about to give her one last reassuring sentence when Gumele walked in and shoved the girl into the dark room.

"You're so helpful, little brother." he sneered. Even little actions carried so much hatred. Where did it all come from? It wasn't jealousy, surely… because what did he have to be jealous about? Gumele didn't care for family so he didn't care that Trunks was being raised by both parents and was part of a real family. Trunks wasn't as powerful as his older brother, so it wasn't to do with a difference in strength. And even a superiority complex wouldn't carry so much hatred. So what could it possibly be? Trunks didn't even want to know what was going through his brother's twisted mind. And that twisted mind would play a horrible part in the princess' torture.

Trunks was able to muster up a decent amount of pity when he thought of it that way. His brother was the sickest of the sick.

Minako dragged her feet behind the pastel prick, and then she sat on a metal chair. This wasn't the same chair from her electro-torture session though. Just a plain, ordinary chair. Minako watched as Trunks left the room and noted how he didn't look at her. Of course he couldn't be caught showing compassion to his kingdom's enemy. Not that she cared. But any kind of kindness wouldn't have gone amiss at that moment. Oh…how she missed Usagi's cheery smile, or Makoto's pep talks, or even Rei's serious scalds. She'd have loved to hear her friend's nagging at this moment. A friendly and familiar voice.

"Welcome back, princess." that familiar voice. The king of those disgusting monkey himself; Vegeta. "I have a few more questions. I really hope I didn't interrupt you in the middle of something important." sarcasm and cruel joy oozed out of his voice as he enjoyed mocking her. She glared at the mirror knowing full well that he was on the other side. She wasn't entirely sure where though.

And then the door opened again, and she felt that nastily evil aura around her as the half-breed's brother entered the room. She didn't even need to lay eyes on him to know that he was there. His darkness had a staggeringly negative effect on her light and completely diminished whatever positivity or hope in which she had left at that moment. He was a close runner up to Chaos.

She was unable to bring herself up to look at him, but flinched when she felt something cold and hard click around her neck. Some sort of metal mechanism? His eyes pierced her, and without looking, Minako could feel his glare upon her. She didn't want him near her at all. This man irradiated danger. Instability. Cruelty.

And then the door clicked shut again and she was alone in that little dark room.

"So," King Vegeta began through the intercom. "Who governs your planet exactly? It can't just be Addienna." Minako flashed back to her previous session in this room and remembered the pain. And then she thought back to the façade she had painted then too and decided to keep her meek and timid tone.

"The Queen, my mother. She has a great influence over Venus. She's respected by everyone. And then there's the Grand Lady, Princess Ishtar, or just Lady Ishtar, my mother's sister." Minako began. Oh god, why was he asking her about the politics of Venus? She barely remembered half of it herself. And what could he possibly be plotting? It had taken him long enough to bother to learn the governing system of her planet which Minako thought was quite ignorant and definitely rude.

"Who else? Don't leave anything out." the sternness in his voice persuaded the poor princess to continue so Minako tried to recall everything she knew about Venusian leadership.

"And then there's Archbishop Montes. He's the representative of Phoebe. There are Archbishops for each country but I can't remember all of their names…" she said meekly. King Vegeta didn't say anything and nothing happened. She wasn't lying either. "Every country has counties which have their own spokespeople and they report to the representatives of each country who report to the royals and between them they govern Venus although my mother gets the final say. She'll go around to different countries from time to time to speak to the public herself and try to resolve some issues. And that's all there really is to it."

King Vegeta scoffed to himself. Why did so much effort go in to maintaining satisfaction? If life dealt you a poor deal of cards then tough shit. If you were born weak, then the strong should put you in your place. All of this fairness and effort to keep people happy went right by King Vegeta's head. He just couldn't understand how it was in anyway beneficial. Maybe that was why they were losing the war: too much happy time and not enough war preparation.

"What a waste of a question, grandfather." Gumele scoffed, which earned him a piercing look from Vegeta. But Gumele didn't care for his father's opinion.

King Vegeta wanted to reprimand his grandson, but Gumele was the perfect brutal warrior. Maybe he should consider starting to leave these interrogations to him instead. But his first grandson was not trustworthy at all. He was selfish and power hungry. In the future, when Gumele would sit on the throne, Vegeta-sai would really be the conquering world of all worlds.

"Then ask some questions yourself." the king roared. Gumele was more than happy to oblige.

Trunks couldn't shake the feeling that his brother had an ulterior motive. He was too enthusiastic for simple interrogation, even though the girl could be strangled half to death at any minute. What was there to be excited about? Trunks had watched Gumele literally rip a person in half without so much as a twisted grin. Why was this different?

"So then, _princess_ , what's your military power like these days?" the sinister man said. The sound of his voice up heaving a nauseous contraction inside of Minako's stomach. Mina was rarely somebody to judge a book by the cover or first impressions, but this man was dangerous. Granted, they'd met before, but this encounter just confirmed her gut feeling. This man irradiated hate and malevolence.

One of the perks of being a little love goddess was the ability to sense when, quite literally, 'love was in the air'. But this man was the opposite of anything kind and lovely she'd ever felt. A truly despicable creature. His demeanour threw her off so much that she couldn't compute an answer for his question in enough time for him. And then she knew exactly what that metal contraption was around her neck for.

Tightening like a cold, steel, python, the bar started to contract. "Too slow, _princess._ "

She couldn't breathe. The pressure building up in her throat was unbearable, and although she heard voices, she couldn't make out what they were saying. A loud, apparent buzzing filled her ears and vibrated so much in her head that she felt as if it was about to explode. Why wasn't it loosening? Surely they knew this could kill her, right? But what if they didn't care? Of course the cared! They wanted something from her, didn't they? They wouldn't go through all of that trouble to just…

And then the contraption loosened to its original diameter. Minako collapsed as far as she was allowed to do so, salvaging as much air as possible into her lungs before no ore could fit. She heard snickering from across the room, but was too desperate to breathe in order to care.

In the back of her mind she didn't even want to fathom how pathetic she looked right now. She knew she had an audience, and a royal audience at that. Maintaining a somewhat decent appearance was the least she wanted to do on this wretched world. But thinking of what she looked like now, she felt pain, but humiliation too. It was at this point that the Venusian Princess realised: she was nothing here.

After what seemed like an eternity of trying to get her breath back, Minako placed a hand on her neck, while trembling on her knees, to make sure that it was still… there? So tender, yet so sore. Not all of the pressure had been alleviated, but at least she could feel air enter her lungs.

"Answer my question." there wasn't a hint of amusement in his voice anymore. He'd switched. But how could he do that so quickly?

Trunks sensed that horrible feeling of disgust in his gut when bearing witness to his vile brother's unsympathetic actions. Laughing at a suffering, weakened girl who was fighting her hardest just to breathe. And then humiliating her further by throwing orders at her after she was a half a minute away from death. What a shit stain of a saiyan.

It wasn't as if Trunks cared about the girl. And it wasn't as if he'd never saw Gumele do anything worse; however, it wasn't just actions, it was the way he felt about them. And that was just it. Gumele felt absolutely nothing. Only humour and amusement, and when he was really in his element, the torture he put other people through was relaxing!

The girl finally found the strength to lift her head, and tried to speak. But it was clearly hurting her to breathe, let alone give great details on Venusian battle strategy. Something escaped her lips. A cross between a squeak and a crack. And that seemed to be all that she could manage. Trunks read her face. She was done for today. She'd already passed out from exhaustion once, and then nearly died from a lack of oxygen. This girl was a fighter, yes, but that didn't qualify anybody to be able to survive when Gumele over excited himself, and that was exactly what appeared to be happening.

"Gumele! Idiot! That's exactly why you're completely unqualified for interrogations. Now we need to wait until she recovers! You've wasted enough of our time today. Leave, immediately!" the king bellowed, right into his grandson's face.

As the prideful saiyan with an overbearing superiority complex, the older prince did not take this well at all. A faint growl was heard from the man, aimed directly at the king. But the king slapped him! Although uninjured, Gumele's ego was hurt. And he immediately walked himself out of the room most likely to stop himself doing something that could get him into serious trouble.

King Vegeta looked at his son to spy the slightest hint of disapproval over his former action, but it seemed that the prince didn't care at all. Disrespecting the reigning warrior was normally punishable by slavery or death for the lower classes, and the higher classes were also slapped with a hefty punishment or beating. If anything, the King had been rather lenient with his grandson.

The king looked back at the princess and sighed, clearly annoyed.

"Trunks, take her out of here." Trunks, not wanting to piss off his grandfather like his brother had just succeeded in doing so, immediately complied with his orders as the king and his son left. Trunks couldn't help but notice his father frown disapprovingly through the glass. It seemed that Trunks wasn't the only one starting to feel homesick.

Walking into the room, the prince slowly approached the floored princess who seemed to be fighting for consciousness. He wanted to pity her again, but then realised he'd done enough of that for today. The last thing Trunks wanted was for the girl to think that they were going to be friends.

But it wasn't as if he had a choice not to carry her again, and she could take that as him being kind. Sighing, the prince knelt down to the princess and she tried her best to meet his eyes.

Minako's field of vision was wobbly and she couldn't focus. But the familiar scent of strawberry shampoo caught her attention and the somewhat visible shade of lavender hair became apparent in her eyes. Was it over? Could she finally go back now? She tried to utter a word, a question, but nothing could make it past her throat without it feeling as if it was going to crack or bleed. Not only did it hurt on the inside, but her neck hurt like hell. She was struggling to even hold it up correctly.

As if reading her mind, the young prince said; "It's over." before Minako felt herself being, not flung, but gently placed over his shoulder. Why was he being so… un-saiyan? The princess definitely wasn't going to complain at the hint of gentle treatment but she was confused nonetheless. Well, gentle by saiyan standards anyway. There was not a single chance that she'd be able to walk. She felt numb and exhausted and couldn't even bring herself to try and concentrate as to where she was being taken. Most likely back to the cell. But all she wanted was a drink of water and a nap right now. She had to gather her strength to try and recollect her thoughts and begin strategising. The sooner she found hers and Kia's way off this world, the better.

Trunks held her by her thighs to try and make sure she was somewhat steady seeing as she was clearly in no shape to try and do it herself. Even without any creams or lotions for her skin, she was so smooth. And the thickness of her thighs reminded him of Earth girls. They tended to be less muscular than saiyan women. Earth girls were often hell-bent on staying slim, and saiyan women had an easily maintainable athletic figure due to the nature of their work. But this Venusian… she wasn't particularly muscular, but she wasn't slim either. Her thighs were hard, probably through training or maybe it was a beauty standard on Venus? Nevertheless, she was luscious.

Trunks once again chastised himself for finding her so appealing. Granted, it was obvious, but he didn't want to give himself a reason to be kind to her over something so superficial. But once again, carnal and indecent thoughts ran their course through his mind.

Was she doing this? Surely not, the girl couldn't even muster the strength to move a limb, let alone focus enough to cast a spell on him. But he refused to believe that this was his own doing. If it was, he needed to stop, and fast.

#####

"Yes, the news is, unfortunately, the truth." the queen spoke, tears pricking her eyes as her loyal subjects looked up to her on her podium. "Our princess, our guardian, has been stolen from us by the barbarians!" boos and protests were heard from the crowd, long with sobbing and dread. Addienna knew exactly what was running its course through their heads; _who'll be our heroine now? What'll happen without the Venus Crystal? How will she get out? Is she still alive? Is she okay? What if they're torturing her, or worse…_

"Without the Venus Crystal, we will still be okay, my people. So there is no need to concern yourself." her voice echoed not only to the crowd, but to every screen in every home as every Venusian tuned in to see what had become of their beloved princess. "And I believe she is not dead, for my heart would have broken in two if that were to be the case. However, I cannot vouch for her safety or treatment." more boos and wailing was heard from the crowd. These later turned into angry protesting and insulting the saiyans. How dare they do this to us? Filthy monkeys.

"And…" Addienna began to break down, "I'm sorry, b-but I have no idea how to get her b-back." and then every Venusian witnessed their royal majesty lose her composure as the tears escaped their prison and ran their course freely down her face. Everyone was silent as they witnessed the backbone of their nation crumble. And then everybody else lost their composure, along with a lot of their hope, as well. Not only was the princess a heroine of Venus and the solar system, she was also a role model, a treasure, and a damn great person too. She spent so much time performing and doing work for her people, she was one of them. The best of them. And she also held the most powerful weapon, power source, and loved item of their world: the Venus Crystal. Without it, they had feared, every bit of technology and magic holding the world upright, keeping their world alive and fertile, would crumble. But at least their queen had reassured them that this could never happen so long as the crystal remained in tact. But even with that good news, hatred began to replace love as the Venusian population began to seethe with a seemingly insatiable thirst for saiyan blood.

Venusians were loving, kind, and sweet… until one of their own was hurt. And that was when love turned to the, when kindness turned to malice, and sweetness became bitter. No love would be lost if a Venusian slaughtered a saiyan, and they weren't ashamed to say that they would take pleasure in it.

Everyone witnessed a familiar looking woman comforting her sister and taking her place on the podium.

"My dears, this is a tragedy. But we shouldn't lose hope! Our beloved guardian princess may be gone for now, but we must have faith in her strength, her intelligence, and her tolerance. My dear niece is not just a fighter, she's smart. I have no doubt that she _will_ persevere, and I urge you to think in the same way I do. Love her, and hope for her. For she will prevail!" Ishtar spoke, punching the air above her head, as the rest of the crowd followed her example.

"Praised be Venus!" the all chanted in unison. And Ishtar joined in. She just hoped that their hope could hold out long enough before they turned sour. The last thing they needed was for the world to fall apart.

#####

The young lady roamed the halls of Magellan with a forlorn look on her face. While technically a princess of Venus, she wasn't _the_ princess, just _a_ princess. And it wasn't as if she envied her cousin, but she didn't like the idea of just being the 'reserve' for her cousin. She hated being known as the back up option. And now that dear Minako had gone, that was all anybody could talk about.

" _What if she doesn't come back?" "Will Lady Estella take her place?" "Will the Venus Crystal go to Estella or the queen?" "What if Addienna gets so depressed that she abdicates and gives her position to Ishtar?" "They're the back up monarchs, aren't they?" "Can they lead as well as Addienna and the princess?" "I guess we'd have a King Consort again, huh?"_

Of course, being Minako's older cousin had been exhausting. She was always having to correct her on etiquette and simple things that a princess should know how to do. But Minako's passion lay in her singing and performing, always travelling and being adored wherever she went. Now that Minako may not come back, she could very well end up being the next Sailor Venus if her cousin died. Yes, it was a marvellous responsibility to protect your people, but Minako was so loved that Estella worried that she may not be big enough to stand in her shoes. And not to mention Minako was more powerful. What if she wasn't as powerful a senshi as her cousin?

And also, the other senshi and Minako were so close, they were almost inseparable. Minako was always disappearing to Jupiter or Mars to go and hang out with Makoto or Rei. What if they didn't take to her because they say her as she shitty replacement? Standing in a position she shouldn't even be looking at.

As selfish as it sounded, Estella not only wanted Minako back because she loved her cousin, but she wanted her to return so she would never have so much responsibility piled onto her.

"Try to cheer up, my lady." a familiar and comforting voice sounded from the side of her. Estella turned, a smile unconsciously forming on her lips.

"Hello, Kunzite." she spoke, meekly. There was also one more thing that annoyed Estella regarding her cousin: Kunzite.

Of course, the captain of the royal guard and the leader of the Heavenly Kings would be expected to marry the princess. But why? She was a princess too! And she was much more appreciative of Kunzite than Minako was, who mainly spent time with him training to refine her sword skills. Estella hated to watch the meaningless flirting between them. They had a great respect for each other, but it was as if they were trying to force a romance because they knew it was expected of them. But as Venusians, they knew this was wrong. The only love was true love.

"How are you holding up, Estella?" she adored the sound of her name on his tongue, especially with out the prefix. She sighed, and took a step in his direction. Her hands waited peacefully as she clasped them together at her chest.

"I'm very worried about my cousin, but I think I need to play my role more importantly from now on. I need to make my people feel safe." Kunzite couldn't help but notice the unintentional knitting of her brows. Stress. Estella had every right to be stressed out, because now a massive responsibility could fall right on her head.

"You and me both. I didn't adapt quickly enough to that massive change in power. If I'd have been more resilient…" his expression fell. Estella knew that look; frustration. Walking over to him, she placed a reassuring hand on his jaw, and edged his face up.

"As do I, Kunzite. If I'd have been stronger, I could have gotten her to safety, but that man was just too fast. It would be fair to say that we failed her." she paused. "But, we can't hate ourselves over something we cannot undo. We tried, but they'd had this well and truly planned out. We'll see her again." Kunzite met her golden eyes with his silver ones. She always knew exactly what to say. They took a small moment to admire each other. But then footsteps were heard approaching in he distance, probably some guards. So Kunzite took the hand that was still gently placed on his jaw, and kissed it.

"Good day, Estella." he half smiled at her, nodded in respect, and carried on his way.

"Yes, you too…" she said, a giant smile forcing its way onto her face, coupled with a bright red blush.

#####

A few days after Addienna's broadcast, news had spread around the whole solar system of the Venusian Princess' disappearance.

Bulma Briefs was in no mood at all for humour as she tried her best to stay interested in the conversation with her father and his dull jokes. But Vegeta had told her everything, and the guilt was slowly starting to kick in. The saiyans were searching for a fuel source plentiful enough to operate _her_ machines that she'd built for them. Thus was indirectly all her fault. And not to mention, her own son had taken part in the kidnapping.

One would think that Earth's richest and most intelligent woman, who had a powerful husband and two beautiful children, had nothing to mope about. But her husband was the prince of saiyans, and forced to be obedient to his tyrannical father. Vegeta lived two different lives; the prince of all saiyans, and the man who trained hard to protect his family.

And then there was Trunks, who was also forced to take up duties on Vegeta-sai as soon as his grandfather had found out about his ability to turn super saiyan at such a young age. A young man who hated the world he was forced to work for. And yet, at home, he loved to play with his little sister, train with his best friend, Goten, and tinker with all of Capsule Corps' machinery. Trunks was a gifted engineer, and Bulma knew a passion when she saw one. As a scientist/engineer herself, Bulma was more than happy to show her son the ins and outs of her inventions. And it filled her with joy to know that he wanted to follow in her footsteps.

But he was also a gifted warrior, something which made her husband happy and proud (although Vegeta would blush and deny this whenever she brought it up) that his son was a great saiyan warrior.

And then there was Bulla. A strong weakness of her husband, Bulla had her daddy wrapped right around her little finger. Granted, Vegeta had taught her to use her ki and how to fight, but the little so-and-so didn't seem to be interested in pursuing martial arts in the slightest. She wasn't interested in engineering either, although the girl was a genius when it came to maths and physics. This made Bulma proud, but Bulla was far too interested in fashion to pay too much of an interest in that either although Bulma did inflict cruel, brain-racking physics lessons upon her talented daughter.

In comparison to Trunks, Bulla was spoiled. Not only because Vegeta didn't force her to train, but because her existence was kept a secret from King Vegeta. Witnessing her son's misery every time he came home from Vegeta-sai and doing his duties, the stubborn inventor refused to let her daughter suffer the same fate and had made sure her husband had it drilled into his head that King Vegeta was not to know that he had a granddaughter.

To Bulma's surprise, Vegeta had happily agreed to such a proposal. And the inventor couldn't have been more relieved.

But years into the future, Bulla was still unknown about by the population of Vegeta-sai, Vegeta still had to spend a lot of time on his home world every now and then which left her feeing empty and lonely. And Trunks…

Trunks had accepted that he had duties on Vegeta-sai. Granted, he didn't enjoy carrying them out, but Bulma had begin to recognise a pride that he had developed of his heritage. He'd began to feel superior, and Bulma worried that Trunks would turn into the man that is father used to be. That would be a nightmare.

But hopefully he'd start to acknowledge how much harm could be done with carrying that false sense of superiority.

The only person who could truly drill that into him was his father. As a man with a complex, Vegeta was definitely difficult to get to come around. Convincing him to marry her was one thing, but that was nothing compared to how dismissive he'd originally acted around her and Trunks as a newborn. He wasn't interested at all. Being a responsible father and bonding with his son didn't appeal to him whatsoever. But something changed in Vegeta, maybe seeing how strong Gohan had become due to Goku's training had prompted him to train his son to be better. But the time he began to spend with his son began to cause a feeling Vegeta had never felt before: love. And then it was only a matter of time that he began to spend more time with her as well. And she prided herself on being the only woman capable of taming the wild, powerful Prince Vegeta. And then began their real relationship. And as time passed, Bulma had noticed that Vegeta was almost a completely different man than he used to be. And he proved his feelings for her by making her his woman, and claiming her as his mate.

Maybe taking a mate would stop Trunks from being so pompous and like old Vegeta. But he couldn't take a saiyan mate. Kind-hearted, sympathetic saiyans were difficult to come by.

Now, Bulma had to try her best to stop herself from becoming depressed through guilt, but she'd been doing that for the past fifteen years at least.

The genius mentally apologised to the young princess of Venus. And she also prayed to whatever god was out there that she'd be returned safely, and that Addienna wouldn't take out her vendetta on her. Because those queens were not the ones to fuck with…

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 **Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! I wanted to include the perspectives of different people on Minako's disappearance. And I wanted to give Trunks and Minako a little more insight. My poor, sweet Trunks thinks that the beautiful bombshell is trying to bewitch him through some unknown means. And my poor, sweet Minako cab't understand why Trunks seems to be immune to her bewitchment. Much more in store for these two (hehe).**

 **I'll hope to post again soon! If not, have a Merry Christmas everyone (and a happy new year).**


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